Police attache to tackle Chinese crime wave in Japan
China's first Tokyo-based police officer has pledged to step up co-operation with Japanese law enforcement authorities in combating crime committed by Chinese nationals in Japan.
The announcement comes just days after Japan said it would not help China in arresting three of its citizens who were wanted by a Guangdong court for their involvement in a mass sex orgy in Zhuhai.
Chen Sanhu, the law enforcement attache at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, said his presence was a signal that China's law enforcement agencies were committed to work closely with their Japanese counterparts so that 'no one will be able to escape the sanctions of the law', the Chinese News Service reported yesterday.
Together with another unnamed officer, Mr Chen arrived in Tokyo last month to begin an assignment as China's first Japan-based police officers.
According to Japan's National Police Agency, violent crimes by foreigners, such as murder, robbery and kidnapping, for the first 11 months of this year, rose by 7.5 per cent to 21,708 with the majority committed by Chinese. It also said that last year, police arrested more than 6,500 Chinese criminals in Japan.
A recent case was the murder of a Japanese family of four in a southern district allegedly by three Chinese men.
Such crimes have severely tarnished the image of the 500,000 Chinese who live in Japan.
While acknowledging the severity of the problem and the damage done to the image of the Chinese community in Japan, Mr Chen said a small minority committed the crimes and most Chinese respected Japanese laws.
He said Chinese police were developing communication and intelligence-sharing mechanisms with Japanese law enforcement organisations, such as the National Police Agency and coastguard. Both agencies have signed co-operation agreements with the Ministry of Public Security.
Mr Chen also said that since his arrival in Tokyo he had begun working with Japanese authorities on investigating specific criminal cases.
The Sino-Japanese co-operation on crime-fighting comes despite last Thursday's announcement by Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda that the government had no plans to arrest three Japanese nationals who were placed by mainland authorities on Interpol's international wanted fugitive list. The men face criminal charges for arranging a three-day sex romp at the Zhuhai International Convention Centre Hotel.
The warrant was issued after a court on Wednesday sentenced two Chinese organisers of the orgy to life in prison and 12 others were given up to 15 years in jail.
