Mainland China's public security has been badly shaken by a string of high-profile violent crimes in recent months. On Monday, a man in Shangdong province burst into a school and wounded 25 pupils. Last week, three men broke into a kindergarten in Jiangsu, hacking and slashing their way through scores of panic-stricken children aged between three and six. Twenty-eight victims ended up in hospital with varying degrees of injuries. Several are still in a critical condition. One person was seized, but two others fled.
In one sensational trial in February, it was revealed that a 36-year-old migrant worker named Yang Xinhai had killed 67 people across four provinces in a three-year spree. Police could find little motive behind the slayings. Between September 2001 and November last year, another man, Huang Yong, lured 17 young men to his home before strangling them with a rope. Huang then buried the bodies in his backyard. A farmer in his late 20s, he appeared to have no motive, either.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, 923,000 criminal cases were reported nationwide during the first quarter of this year - a 17 per cent rise on the same period last year. By comparison, a total of 764,000 people were arrested last year for violence-related offences. In 2002, that figure was 360,000.
Minister of Police Zhou Yongkang attributes the alarming rise to economic development. 'The world history shows that when per capita GDP reaches US$1,000-US$4,000, society tends to be the most unstable and violent,' he wrote in the Xinhua Daily. That may be true, but he stopped short of providing a cause-and-effect analysis of the correlation between crime and money. While it is convenient to blame the increasing rich-poor divide, the legal establishment on the mainland should take a long, hard look in the mirror. The administration of law and the dispensing of justice is an important part of maintaining law and order.
According to official figures, only one-third of violent crimes are solved. Sheer incompetence stands out as one reason for the low rate. In a hostage situation in Ningxia in July, for example, police opened fire too early, only to kill the hostage by mistake. Also in July, in Jilin province, officers acted too late, shooting the hostage-taker - but not before he had stabbed the woman hostage to death.
The mainland holds the dubious world record for executing the most death-row inmates, which helps to encourage violent criminals to go the extra mile and commit murder, thinking they have nothing to lose by leaving no witnesses.