Northern China begins crackdown on crime with full force

Tangshan in Hebei province will send specially trained personnel to visit residential communities collecting reports on illegal acts and complaints, a move among the newly launched campaign for a crackdown on crimes in the city.

"We should carry out in-depth community visits as a parallel measure with citizens' visits to public security bureaus for reporting crimes, so that not a single issue involving public security will be missed," said a top official of Tangshan at a conference held on Thursday night. The meeting was presided by the city's Party Secretary Wu Weidong.

A cooperative working mechanism will be set up for the three organs - public security bureaus that collect residents' reports or complaints, political-legal departments and discipline inspection and supervision departments - so that information on cases can be timely shared among different related departments, according to the conference.

They will crack down on any illegal or criminal cases once uncovered in a fast and thorough way.

On Thursday night, Wu made an unannounced visit to a local police station in the city's Lu'nan district and held a symposium. No information about the meeting was disclosed.

Reports from the city's residents have been climbing since the government launched a sweeping campaign on Sunday to collect information from the public about illegal acts so it can crack down on crimes. The campaign followed viral footage of women being assaulted on Friday which provoked widespread outrage from the public.

About 20 places administered by Tangshan have also set up channels for the public to report crimes, including Lubei district, where the assault took place.

A video clip from media showed some residents were waiting in line to report issues during Thursday afternoon at Lubei district branch of Tangshan public security bureau, according to a report by China Newsweek. One of the branch's leaders received them.