Pickpockets, Muggers, Thieves
A wave of crime haunts city streets
For years China has cultivated an image of itself as a peace-loving society that had eradicated much of the violent crime plaguing the decadent capitalist West. No longer. In recent weeks Chinese newspapers and radio broadcasts have been so filled with detailed reports about pickpockets, street muggers and rapists that the country appears to be in the midst of a nationwide crime wave.
The problem seems particularly serious in Shanghai, where twelve platoons of army troops have been sent out to ensure safety on the streets. Still, Liberation Daily reports that young girls are afraid to venture out of their homes to attend classes at night, and that "some criminals have been publicly blocking roads, committing robberies, murders, rapes, and thefts of both public and private property." Several weeks ago, at a rally of 3,000 people in a city gymnasium, six hooligans were sentenced to terms of eight to 13 years for street muggings, burglaries and harassing women.
Similar stories of crime are coming from other cities. In Tianjin (Tientsin), the local press last month reported on "criminal elements who provoke fights, rob pedestrians and humiliate and insult women in broad daylight." In Peking, there have been reports of small bands of young men who lie in wait in dark alleys to rob passersby. In Hangzhou (Hangchow) last month, two brothers were sentenced to death--and one of them immediately executed--for having raped 106 women over the past five years. In the southern district of Shaoguan (Shao-kuan), nine teen-agers were seized after assaulting a woman at an evening film show; their leader was sentenced to life imprisonment at a public rally of some 5,000 people. The problem, claimed the local Southern Daily, was that the nine teen-agers "lacked ideals and yearned for a bourgeois style of life. Starting by learning how to smoke and gamble, they passed on to theft and hooliganism and degenerated into criminals against the people."
In accordance with China's usually stern practice, sentences have been tough. At least five people have been executed in the past month for crimes ranging from embezzlement to murder. Even in cases involving juvenile offenders, the courts show little leniency. Rejecting arguments that teen-age criminals should be forgiven for their mistakes, the Tianjin Daily sternly warned: "All criminals must be punished according to the laws."
One reason for this tough attitude is that most of the crime is apparently being committed by youths. The Chinese press routinely blames the pernicious influence of Mao's widow Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch'ing) and her deposed Gang of Four. In fact, one principal cause is unemployment, particularly among millions of middle-school graduates who turn to street crime or black-marketeering to get some sorely needed cash.
Despite all the lurid stories, China's crime rate is probably lower than that in most Western nations. Some observers suspect that the new campaign against crime is part of a broader movement to restore law-and-order that also includes the recent crackdown on China's tiny dissident movement. Last week Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping, talking to a delegation from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, defended the stiff 15-year sentence meted out six weeks ago to Human Rights Activist Wei Jingsheng on the ground that "we needed to make an example of him." At the same time, the centerpiece of the human rights movement, Peking's famed "democracy wall," came under official attack. Meeting in Peking, members of China's National People's Congress demanded that "resolute measures" be taken to curb activity at the wall, which, they charge, is being exploited "as a platform for a tiny number of people to foment disturbances" and to "plunge the nation into chaos." Some observers fear that that charge could signal a campaign to put new restrictions on democracy wall, the only place in China where free expression is genuinely tolerated.
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