We Shouldn't Pursue Convictions at the Cost of Justice

Chinese people are quite familiar with the word "crackdown". Since 1983 when the Chinese government conducted a "crackdown" for the first time, many more have occurred and have all been closely connected to public security conditions. The first crackdown in 1983 was triggered by the repeated vicious crimes taking place that caused chaos in public areas and made women scared to go to work at night. The most famous case at the time was of the two serial killers with the same surname of Wang who murdered people in Liaoning Province. In 2001 Jin Ruchao, caused an explosion in 2001 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, which led to the third crackdown. Currently, the many occurrences of extremely violent crime this year, particularly those which took place in kindergartens, have given rise to the latest round of crackdowns.

"Crackdown" is short term for "lawfully and strictly striking down criminal activities, as quickly and as severely as possible". Based on the official description, the basic feature of a crackdown is to tackle the cases with "severity and speed". Historically, crackdowns in China have emerged due to special social contexts and have played a positive role in safeguarding public security. However, we must remember that abiding by the law is an indispensable part of a "crackdown", otherwise "severity and speed" could easily distort the judicial process and neglect the human rights of the people targeted by the crackdown. Simply, the convictions made during a crackdown should be based on a foundation of justice.

In past crackdowns, it is not difficult to find repeated cases where the pursuit of "severity and speed" came at the expense of justice. For example, one of the characteristics of the crackdown in 1983 was the overuse of certain charges as well as the implementation of severe punishment.

At the time, the offense of conducting indecent activities and the crime of rape were excessively charged. Even people who drunkenly urinated in the streets, and men and women who danced together or went on dates in parks could be accused of the crime of taking part in indecent activities. Furthermore, those people who were charged with indecent activity or robbery received excessive punishment; many of them were sentenced to the death penalty or given a postponed death sentence, the same sentence given to those convicted of homicide. Such incidents reoccurred in later "crackdown" movements; to address the social fury, juridical justice was replaced by sensationalism which damaged the fair nature of the law.

Therefore, it is essential for the Ministry of Public Security to focus on the "lawful crackdown on severe violent crimes". Passing judgement based on facts and abiding by the law must serve as the bottom line, otherwise there will be more victims like Zhao Zuohai who was wrongly prisoned for 11 years and occurrences such as the mysterious death of a security guard are likely to be more frequent. We have noticed that the government has removed the words "severity and speed" from its statement this time, a possible indication of a strengthened awareness of the rule of law.

Though conducting a "crackdown" on crime may temporarily stabilize society, it can not eradicate the underlying causes of crime. We have learned through analysis that organized crime (such as gang-related crime) and crimes of passion (such as the kindergarten attacks) are new trends due to the large migrant population, corrupt governmental officials, the large income gap and the lack of response to individual demands, all of which can not be resolved through a crackdown. Just as Premier Wen Jiabao once put it, aside from adopting measures to safeguard public security, we should pay attention to the deep-rooted causes of these problems and provide a safe living environment for every citizen.