China Confronts Rising Crime in a Fast-track Economy
http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=BE4695:2F72C9DLast year, the number of reported crimes rose 7.5 percent to nearly
five million, nearly at same pace as China's economic growth
China Liu Yong, center, head of a crime ring in Shenyang
sentenced to death at court in Jinzhou (AP photo) China's
rapid economic and social changes have created some undesirable
consequences, among them a rising incidence of crime. However, Chinese
officials are learning that simply imposing harsh penalties will not
solve the problem.
On the evening of February 21, Ng Wai-keung, a 41-year-old man from
Hong Kong was attacked in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. His
attackers took his money and stabbed his left eye, leaving him brain
dead.
Mr. Ng's experience is just a sample of the growing number of gruesome
crime tales from residents and travelers in China.
China's ministry in charge of internal security says crime is on the
rise. Last year, the number of reported crimes rose 7.5 percent to
nearly five million, nearly at the same pace as China's economic
growth. Theft and robbery made up 80 percent of the cases. Car thefts,
in a country that until recently had few private cars, climbed 18
percent.
Experts say the growth is an unwelcome product of the country's rapid
economic development.
China's crime rate has been accelerating since the late 1970s, when
the country embarked on economic reforms. According to figures from
the United Nations, in the early 1980s there were 90 reported crimes
per 100,000 people. But by the late 1990s, this had jumped 45 percent
to 131 per 100,000.
Still, compared with many industrialized countries such as the United
States and Germany, China has far fewer crimes per capita.
Professor Liu Jianchong of Rhode Island College in the United States
studies crime in China. He says an increase is inevitable as economic
development brings raised expectations, new wealth and new opportunity
for illegal activity.
"Before the reform, there was a very low economic motivation," said
Mr. Liu. "The government did not allow individual economic ambitions.
So for those people who do not have means to get rich, of course there
is a pressure in terms of producing economic criminal motivations to
obtain the means."
The economic boom has created a large income gap between the wealthy
urban areas and the impoverished countryside - where some 900 million
Chinese live.
With the cities growing richer, rural residents migrate to them in
search of work - millions of farmers now perform manual labor in the
cities. But under China's residency system, they are denied many
benefits of city life, including schools for their children and health
care.
Sociologists say economic inequality can breed frustration among the
less well off.
In July, for instance, a young peasant seized a woman from her car in
Jilin province and demanded $12,000 in ransom. Police shot the
hostage-taker when he slashed the woman's neck.
The police say criminals target entrepreneurs and celebrities in
China's prosperous coastal regions. Kidnap victims have had to pay
thousands of dollars in ransom or face death.
Hong Kong residents and Taiwanese businessmen visiting booming
Guangdong Province sometimes fall victim to robberies and kidnappings.
Guangdong officials blamed 80 percent of all criminal offenses last
year on migrants.
Punishment in China can be severe, with the death penalty used often.
But some experts say that does not necessarily deter criminals.
China often deals with crime through high-profile crackdowns.
Considerable publicity is given, for example, to periodic campaigns
against narcotics trafficking. The campaigns usually lead to mass
trials and, in most cases, executions.
A marked increase in violent crime in the 1980s and 1990s led to a
series of "Strike Hard," or "Yanda" campaigns that resulted in
thousands of arrests and public executions.
Human rights groups say these campaigns resulted in abuses, including
the prosecution of innocent people. Amnesty International says people
convicted of relatively minor crimes not normally warranting the death
penalty were executed.
Professor Liu of Rhode Island College says any deterrent from the
campaigns was temporary because they do not address crime's social
causes. Moreover, he says, the application of the law was not
sustained.
"Law is effective only because it is consistent. It's something that
makes people predict what's going to happen if they commit a crime. If
you just carry out 'Strike Hard,' that creates inconsistency in law,
that really in the long term reduces the effectiveness of the law, "
he said.
Experts say China needs a law enforcement system able to meet the
demands of far-reaching economic and social changes.
Roderic Broadhurst, a professor at the Center for Criminology at Hong
Kong University, says, "What China is doing is trying desperately to
maintain economic prosperity and development and it's also trying to
modernize legal institutions, trying to change the way the Public
Security Bureau makes security organs operate so that they become more
effective, in other words a professional police force which patrols
streets, has special investigators and has all the trappings of a
modern police force."
Experts say China's leadership recognizes that it needs a
comprehensive strategy to curb crime - which means reforming its
justice system, stepping up crime prevention and addressing the income
inequality that motivates many criminals.
Mr. Broadhurst says there is a long way to go.
"There's a whole raft of things that the Chinese authorities have been
trying to do to control or contain crime, but it's a vast problem," he
added.
International law organizations have been working with Chinese
officials to raise the standard of law enforcement procedures,
including protecting suspects' rights.
And the Chinese leadership says it will address one of the major
causes of crime, by raising the living standards of the rural poor.