The alleged underworld boss close to the Chinese embassy in London
To Ming Lam is a Chinatown restaurant tycoon who is a prominent member of the CCP's United Front network in the UK; but questions hang over his commercial empire
To Ming Lam (林道明) is the multimillionaire founder of the prestigious Royal China group (皇朝集团) of restaurants and other establishments such as the Four Seasons and Golden Dragon restaurants. He also has the controlling interest in London’s largest Asian food hall in Colindale, Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall.
Lam is also one of the most prominent friends of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) amongst Britain’s Chinese diaspora: a public ally of its agenda for territorial expansion, an opponent of pro-democracy demonstrators, and a well-connected man who has cultivated elite connections in Hong Kong, where his son is now a politician.
For years, however, questions have hung over Lam’s commercial empire in Britain. Online, it has long been openly alleged both in English and Chinese that he is a senior figure in the 14K triad, a secret society with links to organised crime – but with nothing by way of evidence presented. Reporting by Jimmy Lai’s Hong Kong newspaper, Apple Daily, twice referred to Lam as an underworld figure, in 2016 and 2019, again without presenting any evidence.
In London, previous attacks on Lam’s Royal China restaurants have been publicly ascribed to underworld tensions by police. Between 2018 and 2024, the group paid fines totalling nearly £500,000 after repeated raids uncovered dozens of illegal workers. Analysis of some of Lam’s former business partners in Hong Kong reveals several are high-profile individuals who have since been found guilty of various offences relating to major international corruption, bribery, and foreign interference.
In early 2026, Lam was referred to in evidence presented in the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office National Security Act trial heard at the Old Bailey. Specifically, a message from a former senior Hong Kong police officer referred to Lam as having been a leader of the 14K triad. Correspondence shown to the court suggested Chinese government efforts to involve the 14K in efforts to intimidate anti-CCP dissidents in the UK. Evidence was also shown to the effect that Lam ‘retired’ circa 2024.
No direct evidence whatsoever is presented in this blog that Lam has been involved in criminal activity in the UK or elsewhere. Secret society affiliation does not directly equate to involvement in crime. Lam’s prominence, proximity to the Chinese embassy, and donations to Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police amongst others merit these questions being raised publicly.
UKCT attempted to contact Lam to give him a chance to respond to this research, but received no response.
Lam the patriot, friend of the CCP
Few individuals have in recent years been honoured so conspicuously by the Chinese Communist Party as Lam.
In 2015, Lam was reportedly invited as the only UK representative to the 3rd session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which is the peak conference organised by the United Front Work Department (UFWD). The UFWD is responsible for “Overseas Chinese affairs”, including building ties with powerful ethnic Chinese people overseas like Lam.
In 2019, as shown in footage hosted on YouTube, Lam and his family sat by the Chinese ambassador at a dinner celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in London.
In 2024, Lam was one of just three “Overseas Chinese community leaders” (侨领) named and pictured in a post on the website of the Chinese embassy in London that related to the embassy’s Chinese New Year celebration.
Lam was pictured (above, second from left, with red tie) alongside his daughter and, from left to right, UK Chinese Business Association head Zhang Jinlong 张进隆 and his wife, the Chinese ambassador Zheng Zeguang 郑泽光 and his wife, Chu Ting Tang OBE 鄧柱廷 and his wife, and Bank of China’s UK CEO Fang Wenjian 方文建. UKCT has previously published a lengthy report detailing how Chu Ting Tang is one of the most prominent public influence agents working in support of the CCP in the UK.
Tang is a long-running associate of To Ming Lam and the two have been repeatedly pictured together leading events and rallies in support of the CCP’s position on political and territorial issues, including Hong Kong.
In 2016, the two, accompanied by Lam’s son Peter Yick Kuen Lam 林奕權, led rallies outside the Philippines’ and the United States’ London embassies, protesting against the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling relating to China’s claims to sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea (screenshot from video shown below, from left to right: Peter Lam, To Ming Lam, Chu Ting Tang, and Guangxi Li 李光喜).
In 2019, Tang and Lam appeared (see below) at the forefront of a protest in support of the CCP’s position on a political issue, this time relating to the protests in Hong Kong. News footage published online and broadcast by Chinese state media shows Lam and Tang fronted a protest in Trafalgar Square, holding up a banner that reads “Protect Hong Kong, a Harmonious Society”.
The CCP’s positions on Hong Kong and the South China Sea reflect its long-stated and constantly underlined goal of the “reunification of the ancestor-land”, which also involves the absorption of Taiwan and the resolution in the CCP’s favour of a number of perilous territorial disputes with China’s neighbours. The CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD) is responsible for organising support for “reunification” amongst China’s diaspora.
To this end, the UFWD runs the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, which has branches all over the world. This is an important organisation within the UFWD.
The British branch, recently dormant since the death of its main organiser, is the Promotion of China Re-Unification Society in UK (全英华人华侨中国统一促进会, PCRS). Its most recent list of “honorary presidents” (名誉会长 ), covering the period 2016-2022 at a minimum, consisted of six figures, of which Lam was one. The other five included convicted fraudster Anthony Ho 何家金 on whom UKCT is shortly to publish research, Chu Ting Tang, and Ng Sin Hung MBE 伍善雄, an alumnus of the UFWD’s proprietary university on whom UKCT is shortly to publish research and who runs an organisation supporting Chinese schools in the UK.
Lam has also interacted with diplomats in his capacity as honorary president in perpetuity of the UK Chinese Sports Federation (CSF, 英囯華人體育總會), which has senior employees of a London casino on its advisory board. CSF organises dragon dance displays for various events and ceremonies in the UK in conjunction with Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall, in Colindale, a major business in which Lam has the controlling interest.
This is not an exhaustive list of Lam’s interactions with elite United Front officials and diplomats but serves to illustrate the capacities in which these have taken place: namely, as a “Overseas Chinese” leader involved in “patriotic” rallies and groups supporting “reunification”. These interactions and activities make up a pattern of mutual support indicative of Lam’s connections in the CCP’s “United Front” network in the UK.
Lam and the Heung Yee Kuk
Lam is the leader of the European outpost of the Heung Yee Kuk (HYK, 新界鄉), a statutory advisory body for an area of Hong Kong from which some British Hongkonger families originate and to which they retain ties. The outpost is referred to as the Heung Yee Kuk Overseas Advisory Committee (Europe) Liaison Office (HYK Europe, 新界鄉議局海外顧問委員會（歐洲）聯絡處) and is based in the Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall.
In his capacity as HYK Europe leader, Lam has repeatedly interacted with embassy “Overseas Chinese affairs” officials responsible for the CCP’s United Front work. For example, in 2024, an HYK Europe event was held inside the Chinese embassy in London. A post on the embassy’s website included Lam’s name and picture alongside that of Jiang Lei 江雷, the embassy’s senior official for “Overseas Chinese affairs” (see image below, in which Jiang is on the middle, and Lam on the left.)
In Hong Kong, HYK is a statutory advisory body comprising a council made up of the heads of rural committees. It has a seat on Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and seats in the committee that selects the city’s Chief Executive.
Lam has held meetings with prominent politicians in Hong Kong in respect of his leadership of HYK Europe. For example, in 2014, Lam met with Lin Wu 林武, then deputy director of the PRC government Liaison Office in Hong Kong, and Lau Wong-fat 劉皇發, the late former HYK Chairman and a major Hong Kong political figure known as the “King of the New Territories”. The meeting was reported in a Chinese state-owned newspaper, which referred to Lam by one of his reputed nicknames, “Brother Cow” (牛哥, on which see below). The paper reported on Lam’s restaurant empire, and stated that HYK Europe was set up with Lau Wong-fat’s support.
HYK Europe was established in 2011. It exists primarily as a link between those with New Territories interests (property or residency) in Europe, primarily the UK, and the Hong Kong Government. HYK Europe describes its mission as to “unite overseas indigenous New Territories residents, strengthen communication and connections among them, deepen mutual understanding, and establish an integrated information platform.”
For example, minutes published previously of a HYK Europe meeting in 2023 contain an account of direct personal communications with Chris Tang Ping-keung 鄧炳強, Hong Kong’s hardliner security minister and former police chief, who in 2021 had been sanctioned by the United States. In this, Tang offered to exempt HYK Europe members from having to return to Hong Kong every three years to renew their residency there on a case-by-case basis. The minutes also contain reference to a plan to improve China’s image in the UK and to dispel “unfounded accusations and biased attacks against Hong Kong... while fully implementing the spirit of the [Chinese Communist] Party’s 20th National Congress…” UKCT can share the minutes on request: they were no longer accessible on the HYK Europe site when UKCT last checked.
HYK Europe has close links to the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (HKETO) in London, effectively the Hong Kong government’s de facto mission in Britain.
Connections to 2026’s National Security Act case
In May 2026, two men were convicted of assisting Chinese intelligence in the first China-related trial under Britain’s new National Security Act.
Bill Yuen Chung-biu 袁松彪, convicted, worked as a manager at the HKETO. In 2024, UK-based Cantonese news outlet The Chaser published a Chinese-language article on Yuen which cited Hong Kong media outlets reporting that Yuen attended with his HKETO colleagues at least one meeting at HYK Europe’s headquarters at Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall in 2023, to discuss HYK Europe’s aforementioned plans to improve China’s image. UKCT has corroborated these claims and discovered online a report on the meeting and a photograph of Yuen in attendance.
UKCT has also established attendance by Yuen at an event organised by a group of which Lam is a leading member. A photo published online by the UK-based Kut-O Chinese Association 旅歐吉澳同鄉會 shows Yuen at the Association’s executive committee inauguration ceremony in February 2024. (See image below, a cropped version of the original, showing Yuen in a green jumper standing behind Lam. To Lam’s left is Chu Ting Tang OBE, who himself sits next to Jiang Lei, the Chinese embassy in London’s top “Overseas Chinese affairs” official.)
These connections might not be so remarkable were it not for the fact that Yuen’s co-defendant is more closely connected to Lam. Peter Wai Chi-leung 衞志樑, convicted of spying and of misconduct in a public office, was a long-running member of the dragon dance troupe representing Lam’s sports federation, Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall where HYK Europe is based, with Lam’s restaurants. Wai’s repeated leading participation in dances at events such as the Lord Mayor’s show, Chinatown celebrations and commercial openings is illustrated in the compilation of photographs below, the sources of which UKCT can provide on request. There are further photos not included here. Images have been cropped, and Wai has been highlighted by the addition of a white circle around his face. Branding associated with Bang Bang and CSF can be seen on the dancers’ costumes.
UKCT gathered the information above prior to Wai and Yuen’s trial. During the trial, further information emerged connecting Lam to the 14K triad. The following paragraphs are based on Cantonese-language reporting on the trial from outlets such as PULSE HK (追光者, which absorbed The Chaser) and correspondence with journalists present at the trial; UKCT is urgently seeking to procure a trial transcript, which it will then publish in full.
In the trial, evidence was included in the court bundle to the effect that Peter Wai, one of the defendants, was in contact with Eddie Ma 馬志堅 , referred to in court as the former Chief Superintendent of Hong Kong’s Criminal Intelligence Bureau. The evidence was from Wai’s phone. A witness and crime expert formerly of the Hong Kong Royal Police, Martin Purbrick, attested to having known Ma whilst serving.
In late 2021, shortly after a fight in London’s Chinatown (on which UKCT will publish further research) Wai reported to Ma that a figure not identified in the reporting, referred to as “A-Ye”, or “the Old Man” (阿爺, this term is often used in Hong Kong to refer to the authorities in Beijing), had asked British 14K triad members to assist in intimidating anti-CCP dissidents in the UK.
Ma said in response that the reference to the 14K might relate to To Ming Lam, a.k.a. “Cow Shit” (see below), the boss of Royal China group, who Ma said was known to be part of 14K when he was in Hong Kong.
Wai also sent Ma an image of a man in Chinatown along with a voice note to the effect that the man was a triad member. Wai wrote, “I know him well. I am on good terms with the Royal China Group…” Wai then sent another image of a Chinese man, adding “He is Mr Lam’s man. Mr Lam is not involved in these details.”
Ma responded to Wai’s messages, saying “Got it Peter, thank you. You have done well. Thank you for your help for A-Ye over there in UK.”
The 14K triad is a large, loosely organised Chinese secret society comprising networks of businessmen around the world and incorporating both legitimate and illegitimate business activities. Membership of such societies remains illegal in Hong Kong and Macau.
The court was also told by a prosecution witness that Wai had also acted as an infiltrating informant for a private investigations firm that has worked with the police on investigations into Chinese organised crime. According to the testimony, Wai suggested to the firm that groups he had infiltrated may have been linked to 14K, but didn’t provide evidence.
According to evidence in the court bundle, later, in July 2022, Wai and Yuen, discussed Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall, with Yuen asking Wai whether a mooted Hong Kong democracy protest at the site had produced any disorder. This was likely a reference to a previously reported incident whereby Bang Bang planned its five-year anniversary celebration on the three-year anniversary of the Yuen Long 721 incident, a triad-linked attack on Hong Kong democracy protestors in Hong Kong in 2019. The celebration was reportedly cancelled after the possibility of a protest was discussed online.
Later, in early 2024, Wai had corresponded with another associate and relayed information suggesting that Lam had “retired” but that “when the low-ranking guys are playing the game [Lam] will not interfere.” The exact content and context of these messages is unclear.
UKCT knows of no evidence that Lam had, is alleged to have had, or has been investigated for having any connection to the pair’s actual alleged crimes or any other crimes for that matter.
Wai’s messages, and in particular the note from Eddie Ma, former Chief Superintendent of Hong Kong’s Criminal Intelligence Bureau, suggests that rumours about Lam were not limited to the public, but were at least viewed as credible by someone claiming to be closely linked to Royal China Group and Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall, and corresponded with the impressions of a former Hong Kong police official of high seniority.
It should also be underlined that Wai is alleged to have been a corrupt border force official who boasted to Ma of his closeness to Lam’s restaurant group – and that the restaurant chain, Lam’s, which Wai claimed strong links to has been fined nearly £500k for employing illegal migrant workers. This may merit further investigation.
“Cow Shit” Lam: long-running suggestions of underworld connections
The forcibly closed Hong Kong newspaper, Apple Daily, described Lam in 2019 as a maangyan (猛人), which can mean ‘tough guy’ or ‘mighty man’, often with underworld connotations. Apple Daily had previously referred to Lam as member of the 14K triad obliquely, using an alleged moniker, “Cow Shit” (牛屎, sometimes Latinised as Ngau Si), in an article about an attack on an establishment in Hong Kong allegedly connected to Lam. On at least one occasion, Chinese state media have referred to Lam as “Brother Cow” (牛哥), another moniker. Such nicknames are not necessarily indicative of any underworld connections.
Analysis of companies in Macau shows that Lam was listed as an director in a Macau company named Tin Fok Holding Co Ltd (GESTÃO DE EMPRESAS TIN FOK S.A.R.L; 天福集團有限公司) from March 2011 to September 2013. The company’s main assets comprise a hotel, Hotel Fortuna, and casino. In a company filing, Lam was listed alongside Ng Lap Seng 吳立勝, Si Tit Sang 史鐵生, and Sio Tak Hong 蕭德雄, three individuals since convicted of various crimes.
Ng was implicated in Clinton’s “Chinagate” scandal in the US in the 1990s, when named in a 1998 US Senate report as a source of more than $US1 million worth of funds that were channelled to Yah-Lin Charlie Trie, who was convicted of campaign finance offences. Ng was later sentenced to prison in the US for his involvement in a “Scheme To Bribe United Nations Ambassadors To Build A Multibillion-Dollar Conference Center (sic)”, per the US Justice Department, which involved convictions for bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy. At the time, he had been a member of China’s United Front Work Department-organised Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and described himself as a “civil ambassador of China.”
A report by a former senior Hong Kong police officer that linked Ng to triads and Macau vice also suggested that Hotel Fortuna, the establishment in which Lam had an interest, was frequented by prostitutes and senior officials of the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military.
Si and Sio, Lam’s other business partners and major moguls in Macau, were both found guilty in a major bribery trial in the territory in 2023.
There is no evidence Lam was involved either in Si and Sio’s criminal activity or that of Ng – but these were Lam’s business partners, albeit for a short period in the early 2010s.
UKCT has established that Lam is considered a powerful and intimidating figure and that people with knowledge of London’s Chinatown community are afraid of him. They recognise the “Cow Shit” and “Brother Cow” monikers, and the rumours about Lam’s underworld connections.
In the UK, attacks on Royal China restaurants have been publicly ascribed to underworld tensions by police. In 2002, Royal China restaurants were subjected to a series of attacks, and media articles referred both to a brawl in Chinatown and to the discovery of firearms and other weapons at a restaurant not connected to Lam. It was reported that:
“Police and community officials admit they are baffled by the upsurge in violence among street gangs [... ...] Detectives have established that the tension does not involve traditional Triad gangs but groups of men of different races whose affiliations and allegiances are “very fluid”.”
In 2012, Royal China restaurants were attacked again, according to British media. Reporting in the Independent referred to:
“...what police said is a continuing feud [...] ...a dispute within the Chinese community. [... ...] In the past such attacks have often been over protection money demanded by Triad gangs. Thugs hired by gang leaders will warn other members of the Chinese community they owe money by attacking businesses, causing thousands of pounds of damage. Scotland Yard sources today said the attacks, which happened at about 4am, are part of an unresolved row. The premises were closed at the time and no one was injured. An officer said: “There has been trouble here in recent months and it is highly likely there is an organised crime link. It could well be the restaurant was refusing to pay money.””
Naturally, this was to say it was possible that, far from being implicated, Lam’s businesses were the victims of organised crime activity.
Another Independent article describing the same incidents stated that:
“New crime gangs from mainland China are believed to be behind threats to the established Triads associated with Hong Kong. The confrontation has led to a surge in criminal activity and the recruitment of new gang members by rival groups.”
Later, in 2015, it was reported that Royal China was fined after it was discovered that one of its chains was illegally importing shark fins in postal packages sent from Hong Kong.
In 2021, a video appeared on YouTube describing Lam’s alleged underworld career. Apparently based on a blog by a Chinese social media account called “Chronicles of the Hong Kong Underworld” (香港江湖风云录) which was published around the same time, the video has more than 10,000 views. English and Mandarin Wikipedia pages also name Lam as an underworld figure associated with the 14K (in the former case, only by the apparent nickname, “Ngau Si”, or “Cow Shit”), again with no evidence. Similar claims, likely derivative, have been made by a prominent English-language, US-based social media account. It is difficult to ascribe much credence to these sources in isolation.
In the UK, Lam’s Royal China group paid fines totalling nearly £500,000 after a series of raids between 2018 and 2024 uncovered dozens of illegal workers.
In the first year of these raids, 2018, Lam took part in a protest against the Home Office’s immigration policies, which involved picketing the entrance to the Ministry’s main building. Various other individuals closely involved with the CCP’s United Front network in a UK at a high level, including Lady Xuelin Bates 李雪琳, whose husband was then Minister for International Development (and had recently served as under-secretary of state for criminal information), and two figures profiled in detail by UKCT, Huang Ping 黄萍 and Chu Ting Tang, also led the protest. (A screenshot of footage of the protest is displayed below. Chu Ting Tang is visible on the left, with Lam wearing a pink whistle in the middle.)
Lord Sonny Leong, now a Labour peer, was also present, though there is no suggestion Lord Leong has ever been closely involved with the CCP’s United Front or has any connection whatsoever to Lam.
Taken together, these pieces of evidence indicate that Lam and his restaurant businesses have lacked due care as to the legality of their employment and food procurement practices, and that Lam has on at least one occasion entered into business with men who later displayed a serious disregard for laws in various jurisdictions. It may be these kinds of behaviour and associations that have led anonymous sources to claim that Lam is associated with secret societies, or have led criminals to target Lam’s businesses and people with a knowledge of Chinatown to fear Lam.
No evidence has been presented that Lam has been involved in serious organised crime in the UK.
There is a public interest in this research in part because of the apparent ignorance of various prominent public figures to the reporting about Lam. This includes Lady Xuelin Bates who engaged in political campaigning alongside Lam a year after her husband completed a role as a Home Office minister; Mark Logan MP (pictured standing in front of Lam below; Logan told UKCT he was not aware of Lam) and others who have engaged with the London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA), which is linked to Lam; the LCCA itself, which treats Lam as an honoured guest (Lam’s son also has a role at the association); members of the Metropolitan Police Service Chinese and South East Asian Staff Association with whom Lam was pictured in 2023 (see below); and organisations including Transport for London, Brent Council and the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad (an armed team focused on serious organised crime) which according to deleted webpages archived by UKCT accepted thousands of pounds’ worth of PPE donations from Lam’s companies in 2020.
Image caption: individuals associated with the LCCA, and Lam, pose with members of the Met Police’s Chinese and South East Asian Staff Association in 2023. Source: https://x.com/MpsAPSA/status/1617215529009250304
UKCT attempted to contact Lam through his accountants, the UK Chinese Sports Federation, and HYK Europe, but received no response.
This research is part of a series on connections between the shadow economy & crime in the UK and the Chinese Communist Party.