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Young women on alert amid crime reports
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MANY young women around China, particularly college students, are feeling vulnerable these days after a spate of murder and torture cases targeting young women have been reported in the past month.
In August alone, seven young women were reported murdered, tortured or missing around the country. Although the incidents were different, a lack of self-protection was a similar theme in many of them. In two cases, the victims accepted rides from strangers.
On August 9, Chongqing native Gao Yu, 20, was reported missing. Her mother said the family asked a friend to pick Gao up but that Gao did not know the friend and got into the wrong car.
Although Gao was aware that she had made a mistake, she didn’t get out. Contact with her was lost that night. Ten days later, Gao was found dead in a wood, and the owner of the car was caught. The suspect confessed that he “had a fight” with Gao and killed her.
Another student, whom police defined only as Jin, was kidnapped by an illegal motorcycle cabbie in Ji’nan, Shandong Province, on August 21.
Jin, 22, was planning to take a train from Ji’nan to Tai’an. The suspect, whom the police defined as Dai, said he could take Jin to the station, but kidnapped her, took her to the apartment he rented, and sexually tortured her for four days.
Jin texted her friend when Dai was not watching, and later police managed to rescue her.
“In my opinion, the two cases could have been avoided beforehand,” said professor Jin Cheng, a council member of the Asian Criminological Society. “Black cabbies, for instance, are typical potential crime space. While police should crack down on black cabbies, people should avoid putting themselves in a crime space.”
Meanwhile, some young women are so innocent that they don’t think twice about people’s offer, especially when it comes from someone who looks reputable.
Recently an online reality show, “Tudou Weekend Show,” performed an experiment where women were offered a lift in very fancy limos (valued at 5 million yuan, or US$813,000), to see if they would agree. Five out of seven women got onboard.
“It’s really dangerous for these women to trust people so easily,” said Jin. “High schools and colleges should carry out self-protection education to students.”
In response to the recent cases, the Ministry of Public Security has issued a warning that reminds people, women especially, not to hitchhike unless it’s an emergency. If they have to take strangers’ cars, they should take the back seat and tell family or friends the plate number.
Robbery and murder
Apart from hitchhiking cases, random robbery and murder targeting young women were also reported last month.
On August 12, 19-year-old Suzhou college student Gao Qiuxi lost contact with her family after leaving home for campus. Four days later, the family called police. The investigation showed that a former larcenist surnamed Wang robbed and killed Gao. Wang confessed that he lost much money in an online lottery, so when he saw Gao he committed the crime and buried the body under a village road.
A woman from central China’s Hubei Province named Fan Shasha was found dead in a ditch in Hefei, capital city of Anhui Province, on August 23.
Fan, 23, had intended to take a train to Hubei Province from Suzhou on August 21, but a surveillance camera showed that she walked out of the Hefei station alone around 6pm that day. The case has not been solved.
Such cases are causing serious concern for young women. Yi Ran, a newly graduated student who works in a supermarket in Shanghai, said she is not feeling safe anymore. Yi said she works night shift three times a week, and the shift ends around midnight.
“Previously I always went home alone and was not afraid,” she said. “But recently I ask my parents to come pick me up at the subway station.”
Yi’s parents had the same concern.
“It seems that more people dare to commit crime,” said the father, Yi Dingjian. “Under such circumstances, parents need to pay closer attention to their children, to know where they are and who they are with.”
Meanwhile, the cases are creating a booming market in self-defense equipment and defensive tactic classes. On taobao.com, China’s leading e-commerce platform, numerous types of self-defense equipment are seeing much better sales during the past few weeks than ever before. The keyword “portable alarm” has recently been on the hot searching list of the website.
The alarms can be hung on bags or key rings. When the alarms are set off, they emit a high-pitched siren that should scare off criminals and attract people’s attention. Shengping Outdoor Appliances on the website said it sells more than 100 such alarms a day, which is several times more than usual.
Meanwhile, defensive tactic clubs for women are increasingly popular, especially around college campus.
“The girls in my dormitory decide to sign up for a karate class after the school season begins, and as far as I know, there are other students learning taekwondo or women defense tactics in the college,” said Eva Zhao, a sophomore with the Shanghai International Studies University. “It’s useful.”
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