Chinese Get Tough On Crime 18-Year-Old Guard Executed For Killing Parliament Official

It was a crime that struck at the very heart of the Chinese regime.

Li Peiyao, vice chairman of China’s Parliament, was stabbed to death during a botched burglary by one of the People’s Armed Police soldiers assigned to guard his home.

President Jiang Zemin labeled the crime “a great loss to the state and people” and used the attack to launch a general crackdown on crime in China’s cities.

On Thursday, the conviction of 18-year-old paramilitary soldier Zhang Jinlong was upheld by a five-judge panel in Beijing Superior Court. Zhang, who begged the court for a lighter sentence because of his youth, was executed with a single shot to the head from close range.

But the aftershocks of the Feb. 2 murder still are being felt across China. Never before had the crime wave sweeping the country struck so close to the upper reaches of the political Establishment.

On Thursday, the official Legal Daily announced the arrest of more than 100 suspected murderers, rapists and drug dealers as part of the “Strike Hard” anti-crime campaign.

In a state television interview broadcast Sunday, Ministry of Public Security spokesman Zou Chuanji said violent crime has increased by more than 10 percent since the beginning of the year.

Throughout the capital, bulletin boards of neighborhood watch committees have carried messages urging public participation in the campaign to “protect the masses against crime.” And in recent weeks, national newspapers have featured detailed accounts of major crimes and arrests.

In Guangdong province last Friday, authorities executed a bank security guard who killed three bank clerks and a taxi driver in what was described as the worst bank robbery case in the 47-year history of communist rule. Guangdong officials also announced seizure of half a ton of heroin in one of China’s biggest recorded drug busts.

But the centerpiece of the national anti-crime campaign was Zhang’s execution Thursday.

The final appeal of the young guard in one of the country’s most elite paramilitary units was broadcast on the evening national news.

The broadcast detailed how Zhang had hacked the official into 57 pieces and dumped the remains down a chute before attempting to flee with items including a camera, a leather coat and jewelry valued at $3,000.

After the killing, the senior officer in charge of the 800,000-member People’s Armed Police, Maj. Gen. Ba Zhongtang, and two other senior officers were forced to resign.