Crime on Spring Festival in China

Crimes in Chinese Spring Festival

Introduce
Chinese spring festival is one of the biggest traditional and cultural festivals for Chinese people. Chinese spring festival is celebrated for 15 days, and it is important because of several traditional customs. The festival starts with the Chinese New Year based on the lunar calendar. During the festival season, millions of people travel home to celebrate the festival with their families. During the spring festival season, the railway tickets are purchased at a rate of more than 1000 tickets per second. According to CNN, holiday makers make around 2.5 billion trips by land, and 356 million by rail (Shadbolt). During this time, the traffic jam on the highway is for more than 5 hours. And the whole city is filled with people to enjoy the celebrations. However, during this busy season the crime rates and accidents double. Many criminals try to take the leverage of busy streets and chaos. And they manage to steal from people during rush hours, especially on trains and metros. On the other hand, many people burn firecrackers, which are not safe, and lead to accidents. The Chinese government should take suitable actions to lower the crime rate and usage of firecrackers during the spring festival season.

The reason of crime during Spring Festival
During the season of spring festival, Chinese people burst firecrackers to celebrate. But, according to a report by financial times, China is considered to be more corruptive than countries like Saudi Arabia (Binham). There are millions of people doing illegal business in China. Due to strict government laws, it is hard for a normal person, without contacts, to get a license to produce firecrackers. Due to this reason, many illegal companies try to produce fireworks. During the spring festival season, many people use illegal and dangerous products in the firecrackers, illegally, to reduce the cost of production. When a consumer goes to buy firecrackers, he/she tries to buy a product of cheaper price with low quality. This leads to firework accidents. And many people have been injured or suffered due to the low quality illegal firecrackers. According to a report by China daily news, more than 203 pyrotechnic cases were reported ("China On Alert Against Firework Crime"). 203 seem to be a small number, but these companies produce firecrackers in large quantity. And the businesses of these firecrackers add up to more than a $500 million. However, due to illegal production, general population suffers. Many cases have been reported regarding this issue, and the production of illegal fireworks has a negative influence on the people. People are scared to follow the traditions because the firecrackers are not of good quality. So, due to firework crimes, people are scared to buy firecrackers. And if people do buy firecrackers, they choose to buy crackers that are cheap. Because legal companies, which produce firecrackers, tend to sell it for a premium price.

The influence for people's life


China is the most populated country in the world, and during the spring season majority of the population use public transportation to go to their hometowns. According to Qiang, “Every year after the Spring Festival, farmers leave their homes to look for jobs in cities, which produce a vast amount of railway traffic. Sometimes the overload rate reaches 100%. Some trains are so overloaded that the compartments are damages and accidents become very common.” (Qiang 102). More than 356 million people travel by rail during this season, and the overload rate reaches 100%. When the trains are overloaded, there are several accidents and crimes reported. Each year during the spring festival season, there are 1000’s of crimes reported related to chain snatching, mugging, or stealing valuables. When the trains are overpopulated, the thieves tend to take the leverage of the overloaded trains and they steal the valuables of people without them noticing.

Many people commute by car to go meet their families. The roads are filled with traffic, and sometimes, the car doesn’t even move for 3 hours. And the highways are so fast, that the people don’t notice traffic, which leads to accidents and chaos. There were more than 20,000 accidents reported and more than 50 people lost their lives due to these accidents ("Accident And Crime Rate Down During Chinese New Year - The Rakyat Post"). During the Chinese spring festival celebrations, most of the people drink alcohol with their families. And eve, teenagers and friends drink during the daytime. The driving laws are not strict in China, and due to this reason, many people also drink and drive. Drinking and driving has been one of the biggest reasons of car accidents during the season. Thousands of accidents are reported, and people’s lives are put in danger due to high accidents rate during the spring festival. Spring festival is considered to be the festival to celebrate traditions with their family. But, instead, people do illegal activities and break laws. Drinking and driving is considered dangerous because a person could be intoxicated. And during the season of festival, people drink and drive which is very unsafe for them and for the other cars on the streets.

Government's action to fix
The government has taken several steps to ensure the safety of the people. According to Trevaskes, there is a Strike Hard team, which targets crime that is most prevalent (Trevaskes 88). The Strike Hard team ensures public safety during the time of spring festival in Beijing (Trevaskes 88). However, the government does not focus on small towns and areas where most of the crimes happen. The rural areas of China are not given any protection, and these are the people who buy illegal firecrackers for cheap price. The government should take more steps to ensure the safety. First, the government should have more cops on highways and streets to ensure the smooth flow of traffic and lower cases of dinking and driving. On the other hand, the government should ban all the illegal firecracker companies and they should highly promote safety cracker or government approved. The government should ensure that there should be no corruption and illegal companies should face high fines or jail times. Lastly, the government should provide more safety for the passengers who commute through public transport. They need to overcome the problem of overloaded trains. And there should be more officers in the train or public transport stations to ensure that there are less thefts and stealing.

Conclusion
Chinese spring festival is one biggest festival in Chinese history. Many people tend to celebrate it, but the increased number of crimes and accidents has led to a fear amongst the people. Millions of people burst firecrackers but some companies produce firecrackers, which are dangerous for people. These illegal companies and crimes are taking the tradition away. People now tend to avoid meeting their families due to increased number of accidents and crime. The government should take several steps to ensure the safe of people and also, to reduce the crime rate during the spring festival season.

Work Cited
"Accident And Crime Rate Down During Chinese New Year - The Rakyat Post". The Rakyat Post. N.p., 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Binham, Caroline. "China’S Ranking In Corruption Index Slips". Ft.com. N.p., 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

"China On Alert Against Firework Crime". Chinadaily.com.cn. N.p., 2017. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

[http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-SSJI200003000.htm Qiang, Li. Social Stratification In Contemporary] China''. Los Angeles: Bridge21 Publications, 2016. Print.

Shadbolt, Peter. "When All Of China Goes On Vacation At Once". CNN. N.p., 2017. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

[https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/52/1/230/374894/Policing-Serious-Crime-in-China-From-Strike-Hard Trevaskes, Susan. Policing Serious Crime In China. London] [u.a.]: Routledge, 2013. Print.