| On Crime In China by Tom Carter | | | | response. |
| Perhaps the single most reassuring fact about | | | | A push on their part led to a not gentle shove on |
| travel in the People's Republic of China is its | | | | mine, sending one of the men flying back into his |
| remarkably low crime rate. | | | | two friends. The next few moments were a feral |
| The Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the principal | | | | blur, and for a short time I laudably held my own. |
| authority of domestic criminal procedures, earlier | | | | But six bare fists can infallibly do more damage |
| this year announced a 15 percent decline in violent | | | | than two. The tough guys retreated into the |
| crime (4.5 million reported cases for 2005), while | | | | night, leaving me breathless and battered. |
| common property infringement incidents such as | | | | The police arrived thereafter and took me to the |
| theft, fraud and robbery, which account for 80 | | | | Public Security Bureau to get a statement. It was |
| percent of all cases, rose by only 1 percent. | | | | determined that the hotel security guards failed to |
| Cosmopolitan cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, | | | | serve their purpose, and it was also found that |
| which annually attract tens of millions of overseas | | | | the hotel did not follow strict municipal protocol in |
| visitors on business or holiday, applaud themselves | | | | copying the three perpetrators' identification cards |
| for providing public order and relatively safe city | | | | before accommodating them, which would have |
| streets where one can walk at just about any | | | | assisted the police in their investigation. |
| hour in relative safety. | | | | This meant that it was my right under Chinese |
| But all is not necessarily quiet on the home front. | | | | law to demand an immediate financial settlement |
| In an uncharacteristically candid public admission, | | | | from the hotel proprietor-for my troubles, you |
| the MPS has reported a pandemic of illicit drug | | | | see-though it hardly made up for the bang up job |
| trafficking in China led by an increasing number of | | | | those inebriated gentlemen did on me. |
| foreign crime syndicates, reportedly from the | | | | To be sure, the aforementioned incident is an |
| African regimes of Nigeria and Liberia and triads | | | | isolated one, with a great majority of expatriates |
| from neighboring Asian countries. | | | | being lucky, or not, to see so much action during |
| Moreover, violent crime on the southern shore is | | | | their stay in China ("I was overcharged!" seems to |
| notoriously rampant in Guangdong, making it the | | | | be the leading complaint). |
| only province in China's mainland to arm police | | | | With only one police officer for every thousand |
| with guns. | | | | residents in a population of 1.3 billion, and more |
| Nor is this to say that Westerners are entirely | | | | than 40 percent of mainland precincts having |
| exempt from either being the victim of, or | | | | fewer than five officers, compounded with a |
| committing, more serious crimes. | | | | general lack of funding, resources or |
| I have found myself in several situations while | | | | state-of-the-art technology, China's police ought to |
| traveling extensively throughout China. I fondly | | | | be commended for maintaining an impressively |
| remember the street gang who confronted me in | | | | low national crime rate. |
| a darkened alley in Inner Mongolia, or facing off | | | | Let there be no mistake: Xinhua News Agency |
| with a pickpocket in crowded Qianmen hutong in | | | | has reported that there were twice as many |
| Beijing with a baying crowd of onlookers taking | | | | reported criminal cases in 2005 than in 1990, and |
| great delight in watching a 196cm waiguoren | | | | six times that of 1980. But compared to |
| vigilante. | | | | hyper-violent icons of the wild West such as Los |
| Then there was that time in Chongqing. Not | | | | Angeles and New York, it is no wonder that China |
| exactly heralded as a top tourist destination, the | | | | is witnessing an increasing number of foreigners |
| interior municipality of Chongqing, located on the | | | | residing in its gleaming municipalities. China remains |
| rusty banks of the Yangtz River, uncannily | | | | one of the statistically safest countries to visit, |
| resembles a lawless early-century port-of-call of | | | | and the rest of the world would do well to take |
| maritime merchants, hardened dock laborers and | | | | notice. |
| waterfront brothels. | | | | ### |
| An overnight stay in a small hotel on the outskirts | | | | China Photographer Tom Carter is the author of |
| of China's largest, and hottest, city, turned into a | | | | CHINA: Portrait of a People, 888 snapshots of life |
| midnight brawl after a polite request on my part | | | | and humanity from the 33 provinces of the |
| to ask three obviously drunk men loitering in the | | | | People's Republic of China, due out this winter |
| hallway to settle down, was met with a hostile | | | | from Hong Kong publisher Blacksmith Books. |