Editor's Note: This piece is part of an ongoing series on organized crime worldwide. Images of a shipping container full of filthy, sick (and sometimes dead) Chinese immigrants flash across TV screens or newspapers fairly regularly. Probably the highest profile groups behind this human smuggling are a subgroup of Chinese organized criminal organizations known as "snakeheads." But domestically, organized crime in China is much more diverse. Just as in Italy, Russia and Japan, Chinese organized criminals control territory, extort businessmen, traffic drugs and prostitutes and partake in government corruption. Unlike in Italy, Russia and Japan, however, Chinese organized criminal groups have not been able to break out on the national stage. By opening up economically, Chinese criminals have capitalized on increasing domestic wealth.