In April 2001, President Jiang Zemin launched a "strike...

In April 2001, President Jiang Zemin launched a "strike hard" campaign targeting gang-related crime and other violent offences in April. It is the fourth such campaign. "Strike hard" campaigns are something of a ritual in China. The first was launched in 1983. Similar campaigns were launched in 1990 and 1996, but none have lasted as long as the two-year projected length of the current one.
Typically, they begin with a flurry of high-profile arrests and executions, followed by a period of decline in official crime statistics. Order then gives way to a flurry of new offences that kindle public outrage and oblige authorities to launch a new campaign.
A national conference held in the first week of April 2001 concluded that the rising crime in China had become a political threat, and must be fought with all available means. The conference decided on a two-year deadline for crime-fighters to produce "evident improvement."
Prime Minister Zhu Rongyi said local authorities will henceforth be responsible for social security, and called on very single citizen to launch the alarm at the "passing of the rat." In this latest campaign officials appear to be striking with particular fervour to curb a reportedly dramatic surge in violent and gang-related crimes. China turned the campaign's focus to "drugs, gambling, prostitution and pornography," according to China's police press.
According to the "Beijing Youth Journal" mafia-style organisations number over a million adherents. Crimes reported to police leapt 50 percent in 2000 from the previous year, according to the New China News Agency. Some of the biggest increases have been in thefts and murders, the agency said. Authorities are concerned that some of the most brutal crimes are a response to government efforts to reform the economy and restructure state-owned enterprises. Government efforts to curb subsidies for inefficient state-owned ventures have strengthened the economy ahead of China's expected entry into the World Trade Organization. But tens of millions of Chinese have lost their jobs. China's leaders are staunch believers in the deterrent effect of capital punishment.
The current "strike hard" campaign sprang from a nationwide crackdown on triads and organized crime begun in December 2000, but was only formally inaugurated with the announcement of a spate of arrests and executions in early April 2001.
Despite amendments to the criminal procedure law over the past few years designed to restrict the use of the death penalty many more young and first time offenders are being executed, according to Amnesty International. More than half of all sentenced to die are under 25 years of age, the rights group has said.
There are regulations stipulating that all death sentences must be approved by China's Supreme People's Court, but in practice the responsibility is almost always delegated to provincial courts.
During "strike hard" campaigns, China's criminal procedure law is trampled all the more readily by police and court officials eager to meet punishment quotas. The result is widespread miscarriages of justice. Cases of people jailed for crimes they did not commit during previous "strike hard" campaigns continue to be brought to light. Amnesty has counted at least 20 cases in the past year of people released after years in jail, often sentenced on the basis of confessions "obtained through torture."

NOTE: news of death sentences or executions for specific crimes is inserted under the relevant subtitle even though it may be part of the Strike Hard campaign. This section contains only general information.