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Jacqueline Nivard

The Suppression of Black Societies in China - 0 views

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    Two events have taken place that will change the way the Chinese state tackles organized crime and corruption. Law reforms re-defining organized crime while strengthening judicial oversight and the apparent demise of 'hit black' (dahei) 'strike-hard' (yanda) style police campaigns of the kind practised in the Chongqing 'experiment' are new developments in China's evolving response to organized crime. The law reforms focused on enhanced punishments and new offences with respect to food adulteration, bogus medicines and criminal gangs, which had been at the forefront of public scandals that had threatened political stability and the legitimacy of police and judicial organs. The revision of Article 294 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (PRC) specifically re-defined the elements of organised crime ('black societies'). It also addressed the role of public officials in the spread of such crime and was belated recognition that more needed to be done to reduce the penetration of business and the state by organised crime. The Chongqing approach to crime control was until recently touted as a model crime-fighting practice but is now criticized and in retreat, and its leaders are discredited. The widely publicized, Chongqing 'Red-Black' criminal 'gangland' trials involved high officials and high profile entrepreneurs mixed with vice and violence. The trials (2009-2011) became public spectacles that exemplified the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) determination to enhance public stability through clean government (Lam 2009, Liu 2011). In the vast municipality of Chongqing politburo member Bo Xilai and head of the municipal CCP had made "cleaning up the city" a key to his 'Five Chongqing' program that sought to restore party legitimacy in the face of massive inequality. Apart from a revival of Maoist values a major element was the relentless dahei anti-gang campaigns that exploited confessions to 'crack' cases. Many
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