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MORE FACTORIES CLOSING IN CHINA
Fear of more crime as workers lose jobs
February 25, 2009
MR YANG Zhili did not think the economic crisis would affect his quiet daily routine as a taxi driver in southern China's Shenzhen until two passengers tried to rob him at knife-point.
Said the 40-year-old: 'They were young kids, from outside Shenzhen, who'd had nothing to eat. I was in the army for five years, so I know how to defend myself, and I quickly overpowered the guy with the knife.
'I gave them 10 yuan ($2) so they could buy two bowls of noodles, and told them not to try and rob people again. I hope this taught them a lesson.'
The recent incident is an example of what experts fear could become a crime wave as China's 1.3 billion people struggle with the consequences of the global meltdown.
The export-dependent Chinese economy slowed to 6.8 percent growth in the final quarter of last year, a decidedly worrying pace for a nation used to double-digit expansion, and unemployment figures have risen sharply.
Thousands of factories have closed down along China's east coast, costing 20 million workers their jobs. The workers are from the destitute rural interior who had found new hope in the cities.
With the economy unlikely to pick up soon and re-create those lost jobs, the social impact could worsen, warned Mr Liu Kaiming, director of the Institute of Contemporary Observation, an organisation that educates and advises migrants.
He said: 'People can live without work for only a month or so before they have to start thinking of a way out.'
Culprits: Migrant workers?
The concern that the migrant workers will now turn to crime is felt all over China, but nowhere perhaps as keenly as in Shenzhen, part of Guangdong province, the nation's main industrial hub and labour magnet.
Guangdong's deputy head of police He Guangping predicted: 'The public security situation will remain rather serious this year, and there will be an increase in various forms of crime.
'The financial crisis may create unemployment among migrant workers, and the unemployed may come under the influence of criminals and become a destabilising element, or they could turn into criminals themselves.'
Shenzhen, a city of four million people, is gradually seeing more idle hands in its industrial zones as more plants stop operating.
However, there are no statistics showing what percentage of crime is committed by migrants although locals tend to blame crime on outsiders.
But for academics in China, it is fairly uncontroversial to link a weakened economy and a rise in crime rates.
'It's beyond doubt that crime is rising as a result of the crisis,' said Mr Du Xiongbo, a professor of criminal psychology at Xiangtan University in central China's Hunan province.
'After the Asian financial crisis in 1997,crime rates also went up,' he said.
AFP
MORE FACTORIES CLOSING IN CHINA
Fear of more crime as workers lose jobs
February 25, 2009
MR YANG Zhili did not think the economic crisis would affect his quiet daily routine as a taxi driver in southern China's Shenzhen until two passengers tried to rob him at knife-point.
Said the 40-year-old: 'They were young kids, from outside Shenzhen, who'd had nothing to eat. I was in the army for five years, so I know how to defend myself, and I quickly overpowered the guy with the knife.
'I gave them 10 yuan ($2) so they could buy two bowls of noodles, and told them not to try and rob people again. I hope this taught them a lesson.'
The recent incident is an example of what experts fear could become a crime wave as China's 1.3 billion people struggle with the consequences of the global meltdown.
The export-dependent Chinese economy slowed to 6.8 percent growth in the final quarter of last year, a decidedly worrying pace for a nation used to double-digit expansion, and unemployment figures have risen sharply.
Thousands of factories have closed down along China's east coast, costing 20 million workers their jobs. The workers are from the destitute rural interior who had found new hope in the cities.
With the economy unlikely to pick up soon and re-create those lost jobs, the social impact could worsen, warned Mr Liu Kaiming, director of the Institute of Contemporary Observation, an organisation that educates and advises migrants.
He said: 'People can live without work for only a month or so before they have to start thinking of a way out.'
Culprits: Migrant workers?
The concern that the migrant workers will now turn to crime is felt all over China, but nowhere perhaps as keenly as in Shenzhen, part of Guangdong province, the nation's main industrial hub and labour magnet.
Guangdong's deputy head of police He Guangping predicted: 'The public security situation will remain rather serious this year, and there will be an increase in various forms of crime.
'The financial crisis may create unemployment among migrant workers, and the unemployed may come under the influence of criminals and become a destabilising element, or they could turn into criminals themselves.'
Shenzhen, a city of four million people, is gradually seeing more idle hands in its industrial zones as more plants stop operating.
However, there are no statistics showing what percentage of crime is committed by migrants although locals tend to blame crime on outsiders.
But for academics in China, it is fairly uncontroversial to link a weakened economy and a rise in crime rates.
'It's beyond doubt that crime is rising as a result of the crisis,' said Mr Du Xiongbo, a professor of criminal psychology at Xiangtan University in central China's Hunan province.
'After the Asian financial crisis in 1997,crime rates also went up,' he said.
AFP
