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