How does James Clavell use imagery in Noble House: A Novel of Contemporary Hong Kong?

Example of Imagery:

"No. I don't care about the gambling. All Chinese want to gamble and if some Chinese police officers run illegal street gambling it'll be mostly clean and mostly fair though bloody illegal. If they don't run it, triads will, and then the splinter groups of rotten little bastards, we so carefully keep apart will join together again into one big tong and then we'll really have a real problem. You know me, lad, I'm not one to rock any boats, that's why I won't make assistant commissioner. I like the status quo. The Dragons run the gambling so we keep the triads splintered—and just so long as the police always stick together and are absolutely the strongest triad in Hong Kong, we'll always have peace in the streets, a well-ordered population and almost no crime, violent crime,"