Serious criminal activity
decreases
LIU LI, China Daily staff
Fewer people were killed in Beijing and the number of
serious crimes declined last year compared with 2001, sources
say.
The number of homicides in the capital city dropped 5.6 per
cent last year compared with 2001, in addition to the number
of robberies coming down 9.7 per cent, according to sources
with the People's High Court of Beijing.
"Some new criminal factors in society, including those
people responsible for muggings, the destruction of electrical
equipment, motor vehicle theft and drug smuggling, have been
looked at seriously by the courts," said Wang Ming,
vice-president of the Beijing high court.
Meanwhile, suspects had gone on trial for about 10,700 acts
that seriously endangered people's safety such as arson,
bombings, and robberies in the three levels of courts - high,
intermediate and district - in Beijing during the two years
until March.
About 14,400 offenders had been jailed, according to a
source with the court.
Not including court hearings, local courts put forward 48
written suggestions in 2001 to groups including the Ministry
of Railways and the People's Bank of China after finding their
management weak points, which allowed criminal activities to
take place.
About one-third of the organizations that received
suggestions from the court have replied about the improvements
they have made, said Wang.
Nearly 62 per cent of the people surveyed said the
capital's security condition was good - 16.7 percentage points
higher than in 2001.
