Half a million sets of playing cards with head shots of Henan's "Most Wanted" criminals were delivered to the railway police by the Xingyang Police Bureau, Henan Province, on Tuesday morning. The playing cards will be distributed to passengers, free of charge, on trains that stop at Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan, by railway police and train stewards. The aim of the exercise is to capture the criminals through positive identification.
Printed on every face card - the King, Queen and Jack - and on each Ace card is detailed information of 16 murder suspects, including a description of the crimes, a police contact number and reward amounts.
This was the method used in 2003 by the United States to capture - and kill, in some cases - deposed Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, and key members of his regime.
According to Zhang Yu, vice director of Xingyang Police Bureau, they have cracked nine out of ten murder cases that occurred this year, and 11 cases from previous years in areas also under their jurisdiction.
But some cases are harder to crack than others, particularly when criminals are on the run.
Zhang said that police had tried to track down suspects through the use of posters, leaflets and circulars. But some cities didn't allow bill posting, Zhang said, adding that many citizens threw their circulars away.
This is the first time that China is using the playing card method. Zhang said that, if all goes well, the cards will grab people's attention and spread the information far and wide.
(China.org.cn by Xu Lin November 16, 2005)
