China: June 22, 2001

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For the last ten weeks, the government has been conducting a vigorous "Strike Hard" campaign against criminals. The government reports that 40 policemen have died, and 1,633 policemen wounded while chasing down and arresting criminal suspects. As a result of all this effort, 1,060 suspects have been tried, convicted and executed. Several thousand others received prison sentences. What the government did not report on is the trend in popular protests. A senior official did mention, in a speech, that last year there were 117 violent protests by citizens, which resulted in 4,300 injuries  (over half of them being government officials.)