Corrupt police officers accused of protecting gangsters
- Source: Global Times
- [08:22 September 16 2009]
- Comments
By Kang Juan
The crackdown on criminal syndicates and their "protective umbrellas" in Chongqing Municipality has entered a deep water zone after three senior law enforcement officials were recently investigated on suspicions of involvement with underworld gangs.
According to local reports, a Chongqing police crackdown, which began in June, broke up 14 major gangs, which had run illegal loan businesses worth as much as 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) – equivalent to a third of the city's financial income last year. Thirty senior police officers have been investigated for alleged involvement with the gangs.
Qiu Geping, a professor of criminology with Shanghaibased East China University of Political Science and Law, says the "protective umbrella" of public officials actually involved with the gangs is one of the essential conditions for the existence and development of underworld organizations. "This is the largest-scale and most thorough local crackdown on underworld forces I have observed, which I believe is supported by the central government," Qiu told the Global Times Tuesday.
The latest case reportedly involves Wen Qiang, former vice director of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, who has been put under shuanggui status, in which a Party official is ordered to explain allegations of disciplinary violations or corruption at a designated time and place.
In local interviews, many residents expressed surprise at the existence of an underworld society in Chongqing.
Wang Li, a professor of criminal law at Southwest University in Chongqing, said Chongqing's crime syndicates are skilled at operating in secrecy. "Violence is used less and only a last resort. Except for illegal businesses like organized prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking, the syndicates have penetrated legitimate industries such as construction, trade and transportation by establishing companies whose businesses are run by illegal means," Wang said.
In Qiu's opinion, Chongqing underworld organizations are not as sophisticated as syndicates that have penetrated financial sectors and engaged in money laundering. He said most of these crime syndicates are concentrated in southeast provinces such as Guandong and Fujian.
According to the latest official release, police have investigated 1,267 underworld crime cases in the past three years and broken up more than 13,000 gangland organizations. Qiu disputed the frequently quoted figure of 1 million underworld gangsters in China, an estimate attributed to Nanjing University Professor Cai Shaoqing, an expert on Chinese secret societies.
"The figure is overestimated and without foundation," Qiu insisted. "If it were true, the life of common people would have been badly disturbed." Judging by the economic power of criminal gangs and the ranks of officials involved, Qiu noted that the underworld crime menace is more severe than a decade ago.
He says the "protective umbrella" of government officials actually involved with the gangs is one of the essential conditions for the existence and development of underworld organizations. "Actually, some local officials are not simply 'protective umbrellas' for the criminal syndicates, but are actively soliciting them for cooperation," Qiu said.
As an example, Qiu cited the case of Wang Shibin, former vice director of the Yongzhou Public Security Bureau and the leader of an anti-underworld crime squad, exposed in 2006 to be the real head of the city's underworld society, who ran criminal activities including loan sharks, blackmailers, illegal gambling and drug trafficking. He was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison. "The collaboration between government officials and the underworld is the most dangerous trend in the development of organized crimes," said He Bingsong, a professor of criminal
law with China University of Political Science and Law.
