Explaining ‘Grey Capital’: The Sociology of Transnational Chinese Companies and Crime in Thailand

Through an examination of ‘grey capital’, transnational operations that combine legitimate and illegitimate business, this article contributes to literatures on China’s investment in peripheral states. Taking a cross-border sociological approach, it argues that China’s ‘grey capital’ flows into Southeast Asia are facilitated by a social isomorphism, in which both sending and receiving states are characterised by informal relationships creating porosity between the state and business on the one hand, and legitimate and illegitimate businesses on the other. To deepen understanding of the revelations of ‘grey capital’ that surfaced in Thailand in 2022, the article traces the activities of one transnational Chinese actor active in Thailand since the 1990s. Using media and police reports, it notes his involvement in large-scale falsification of Thai documents and money-laundering operations. It maps his network of powerful contacts and patrons in Thailand, and documents his intermittent support to agendas of the Chinese state. While evidence to determine if these efforts are undertaken independently or with state complicity is currently lacking, the case suggests that in the case of transnational crime, China’s outward investment largely reflects the commercial interests of the actors, occasionally inflected by a desire to legitimise their activities through service for the homeland.