1,198 mafia-style gangs busted in countryside

Chinese authorities had busted 1,198 mafia-style gangs in rural areas by the end of November in a three-year nationwide crackdown on organized crime launched in January 2018, recently released figures show.

Data released by the national office against organized crime of the Communist Party of China Central Committee's Political and Legal Affairs Commission showed the mafia-style gangs busted in rural areas accounted for a third of the national total.

Authorities also smashed 13,272 other criminal gangs in rural areas and rooted out about 41,700 village officials convicted of crimes or who sheltered or were involved with village bullies and criminal gangs.

The crackdown has basically eliminated gangs and village bullies in rural areas, significantly improving the electoral process in rural communities, the office said.

A recent survey found that 95.1 percent of rural residents were satisfied with the effectiveness of the crackdown, and 95.8 percent believe the influence of gangs on grassroots political power has been severed.

Shi Fenggang, a ringleader of a mafia-style gang in Changxindian, a town in Beijing's Fengtai district, was elected Party secretary of the town's Xinzhuang village in 2013 after bribing voters and served as director of the village committee. That gave him control of the village's management and he used that power to benefit himself and accomplices by various illegal means.

From 2013 to 2018, he gathered a group of people to intimidate and threaten villagers who did not obey his management. Shi arranged for his son to join the Party and helped him become a member of the village's Party committee and villagers' committee to consolidate his own position. Shi also bribed people to help his son be elected as a deputy to the Fengtai district people's congress.

Prosecutors found that Shi committed 15 crimes, including organizing and leading organized crimes, corruption and embezzlement. In September, the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court sentenced him to life imprisonment and confiscated all of his property. Another 21 people, including Shi's son and wife, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 18 months to 25 years. More than 40 Party members and officials were punished for involvement in the case.

The data showed that over 101,600 village-level Party committees were found to be weak and slack, and that 91 percent of them have now been rectified.

The office said it was alarming that some Party organizations in rural areas had been controlled by clans and criminal organizations, and a long-term mechanism needed to be built to prevent and rectify the problem of village bullies.

In June last year, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued a guideline on strengthening and improving governance in rural areas. It required efforts to promote the rule of law in rural areas and build safe villages.

The guideline also urged the deepening of the crackdown on organized crimes and improved mechanisms for preventing and combating them.