Crime is rising in Shanghai, underscoring the impor-tance of the city’s participation in a nationwide “get-tough” campaign against lawbreakers now under way, a top local law-enforcement official said recently.
But, insisted city Public Security Vice Director Wu Yan’an, public safety in Shanghai has been “better in recent years.”
The number of criminal cases last year rose 8.4 percent from 1999, the year when the number dipped for the first time in 10 years, said Wu, who declined to provide the actual numbers and instead would only disclose percentages.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of criminal cases soared 18.4 percent over the same period last year, Wu added. The bright spot - if it can be considered as such - is that the increase in the first quarter is only about half the national average, Wu said.
“Major crimes are still a big problem for us,” Wu said. For instance, manslaugh-ter cases rose by 17 percent in the first three months of this year, he said.
The number of cases involving dismembered bodies or multiple deaths also rose, Wu said.
He cited a triple slaying of a family in Minhang District in January. A robbery led to the killings and three men were arrested eight days later, Wu said.
“Our goal is to beat back the rising trend of more criminal cases - as well as cracking more cases,” Wu said. He pledged to make Shanghai safer.
The Public Security Bureau recently announced a stepped-up drive against crime during the next two years. Police are now focusing on burglaries and robberies.
For a year beginning in June, the heat will be on criminals engaged in “finance-related” wrong-doing, such as extortion.
(eastday.com 04/19/2001)
