At war with the games

By Ma Wei and Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-22 08:19

It has been hailed as the "people's war": a zero-tolerance crackdown on organized crime gangs and rogue politicians aimed at cutting out the cancer of Chongqing.

Images from the southwestern municipality suggest citizens have overwhelmingly come out in support of the crime-busting campaign, with scenes of crowds bustling to get into the courthouses where the alleged gang bosses are standing trial.

But how ingrained is the problem of organized crime in the city? And, as some people have suggested, is the high-profile purge spreading a sense of fear rather than one of safety?

During China Daily's investigation into the aftershocks of the crackdown, local residents and small business owners related many stories of "gang-related activity" in the city, ranging from extortion and intimidation to brutal violence.

The most harrowing was the story of 40-something club owner Liang Yiping, who was hacked to death with machetes by hired killers in broad daylight on June 26.

"He was getting into his car in a crowded street in Beibei district at about 3 pm when they attacked him. His left leg and arm were cut off," said the victim's elder brother, Liang Yifu. "He died in hospital eight hours later. His body had to be stitched back together at the funeral home."

Yang Tianqing, 35, was yesterday sentenced to death for arranging the killing of Liang Yiping and heading one of 14 alleged "mafia-style" gangs cracked by police since June. He was reportedly paid 250,000 yuan ($37,000) to orchestrate the hit by Li Xianguang, 49, the victim's former business partner.

Yang ordered henchmen to "do the job" and rented three city apartments as safe houses for the killers to hide out in, Chongqing Daily reported.

Murder is just one of 21 charges faced by the many alleged crime bosses and corrupt officials who have gone on trial in the city since Monday. Other charges include illegal imprisonment, running illegal drugs and gambling dens, forced prostitution and illegal gun possession.

"What every victim of the gangs and the people of Chongqing want from these trial is justice," said Liang Yifu.

To investigate the murder of Liang Yiping, police officers even had to be drafted in from neighboring Shapingba district due to concerns within the municipal public security bureau that corruption was rife among Beibei officials, Chongqing Evening News reported.

However, for every tale of gang-related crime, China Daily also heard from locals who dismissed suggestions that the city is "riddled with corruption", as the high-profile arrests have suggested.

"The city was safe before the clampdown, and it is just as safe now," said one professional, who has lived and worked in the city for more than a decade but asked to remain anonymous. "This has done nothing but make a lot more people scared."

Other local businessmen and women said they had heard a lot about the city's organized crime problems but never witnessed it first hand, while some dismissed the issue as "utter nonsense".

Despite mixed views on the streets, however, the municipality is right to react against the growing threat of organized crime, which has matched the sharp rise of the nation's economy since the 1980s, said Wang Li, a professor in criminology at the Southwest University law school in Chongqing.

"Gangs are the product of economic growth. As China's economy soared, crooks in Chongqing have been getting more organized and sophisticated. Many of the gangs are now headed by well-educated people," said Wang, who has spent decades studying the development of organized crime in China. "Sophisticated gangs have gradually turned from violent crime to economic, white-collar crime by using their control of areas and districts.

"They use illegal methods to run legitimate businesses, which makes it hard for police to collect evidence against them. They exert their power on industries like transportation, real estate and produce, and use legal companies to front gambling dens or brothels. Crimes by organized gangs not only undermine public security but also indirectly affect the livelihoods of the city's 30 million population."

Police received relatively little praise last summer after reportedly cracking 52,671 cases of crime, crushing 92 illegal organizations and arresting 23,601 suspects. However, this crackdown has grabbed the attention of locals and residents across the country, added Wang.

Bo Xilai launched the latest crime-busting mission shortly after his appointment as the city's Party secretary in December 2007, drafting in Wang Lijun from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region as deputy director of its public security bureau.

Local media reported the duo were already firm friends following their time working in Liaoning province, where Wang earned a reputation as a tough crime-buster while director of Tieling and Jinzhou cities.

The pairing has won unprecedented support, according to Yang Guanglei, secretary of the municipal politics and law committee, who in August said police had received more than 9,000 tip-offs on gang-related crime from locals, many of whom gave their real names.

His comments were quickly followed by the News of the Communist Party of China website labeling the crackdown a "war for the people".

"Chongqing did not voluntarily take up the crackdown on the gangs; the government was forced to do so by the gangs," Bo told reporters last Friday. "People were gathering outside our gates, holding pictures of victims caked in blood. Gangsters were hacking people with blades like butchers killing livestock. We attached great importance to the people's appeal as it concerned their safety, their lives."

A municipality public security bureau spokesman said it is difficult to calculate the economic impact of gang crime, but added it is estimated loan shark activities last year alone involved more than 30 billion yuan, equal to a third of the city's fiscal income.

Criminologist Wang added: "Bo Xilai has very sharp eyes to see the link between organized crime and officials, which partly explains why police operations in the past only tackled mobsters rather than organized gangs."

Local experts, journalists and residents say one of the sparks to ignite Bo's clampdown was a taxi strike last November when Li Qiang, an alleged crime boss, was accused of orchestrating a campaign of violence and intimidation throughout the city.

Unnamed politicians and police insiders told media that Li - a billionaire businessman with taxi, bus, car repair and real estate companies,who is a former deputy to the Chongqing People's Congress - had hired men to threaten taxi drivers into taking part in a protest over new government regulations that would allow cabbies to pay 50 yuan less in management fees, affecting his and other taxi firm owners' profits.

"A mechanic told me to stop driving when I went to get new fabric covers for my cab seats on the eve of the strike," said a taxi driver in his 30s who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

"I did not dare to work after that. On the day of the strike, people were throwing bricks at taxis in the street. Gangsters were also flagging down cabs and, if one stopped, the drivers were dragged out and severely beaten."

Chinese media have reported waves of public support for Bo following the crackdown. On Aug 13, a Chongqing publicity spokesman said that a website poll had shown 98 percent of netizens support the anti-gang campaign and highly praised the police's achievements. The spokesman failed to elaborate on the website or number of respondents.

Since the crackdown began in June, more than 1,500 suspected gangsters have been detained or arrested, and, although the city's security bureau has not formally disclosed details on cases related to corrupt officials, Beijing Morning Post this week reported at least 200 government or ex-government employees had been detained on allegations of collusion.

Also implicated were two former directors of the municipal public security bureau, Wen Qiang, 56, and Peng Changjian, 46; traffic police chief Chen Honggang; urban planning director Liang Xiaoqi; Zheng Wei, ex-deputy secretary of the Yuzhong district Party committee; Mao Jianping, the municipal procurator's deputy chief prosecutor, and Wang Xiping, director of coal mine safety supervision.

So far, 19 of 51 departmental-level officials detained have been formally arrested, according to information on the website of the municipal procuratorate.

The drive to sweep the streets of corruption, however, is part of a grander vision to rebuild Chongqing on "five aspects", which were spelled out by Bo in a Party committee speech last year as pleasant living standards, safety, healthy, smooth transportation and reforestization.

The Chongqing finance bureau has allotted almost 19 billion yuan to make the vision a reality, with almost 300 million going towards safety measures, including "processing long-pending appeals and complaints, solving tough cases and carrying out the campaign to crush gangs", according to information released by the local authority's official website.

The money will also be invested in a fund to compensate the families of police officers who are injured or killed while working on the anti-gang clampdown, like Cheng Ming, 39, who died on Oct 1 from internal bleeding in the brain caused by overwork, said the authority.

Chongqing Evening News reported that the anti-corruption campaign will be extended over the next three years, and experts have called for the clampdown to be rolled out across the nation.

"Central to the Chongqing model is a determined government leader, a police hero and extraordinary support from the public," said Fang Ling, director of the law research center at the Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences. "Justice authorities should decentralize powers they have vested interest in and strengthen supervision to prevent gangs penetrating the judicial systems.

"China is at a crucial stage. Mishandling organized crime gangs could allow them to grow even stronger," Fang said.