Following an explanation of the "social webs" ("guanxi") that constitute the dynamics of Chinese group licit as well as illicit organized activities, the article provides an overview of the global webs of Chinese migration; the latter discussion focuses on the Fukienese, the Cantonese, the overseas Chinese (Huaqiao), and the Hei Shehui. A functional paradigm for transnational ethnic Chinese criminal activity is then proposed. A review of the global trade of ethnic Chinese transnational crime notes that it is an opportunistic entrepreneurial activity, conducted exclusively through individual and organizational guanxi (mutual-obligation bonds) networks whose members share common characteristics, such as language, lineage, and natal place. These criminal groups are engaged in drug production, smuggling, and distribution; alien smuggling; weapons smuggling and distribution; theft and smuggling; counterfeiting; and theft of high-technology items. Other sections of this article trace the evolution and operation of powerful Chinese organized crime to the Taiwanese and to the reform period in the People's Republic of China. 60 notes