July 15, 2011
By Yang Lei
Southern Daily
Translated by Yang Ziman
People taking long-distance and public city buses in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen will be subject to bag searches and security checks as of Aug 1, as the city tightens security ahead of the 2011 Summer Universiade, or world university games, which begin on August 12.
Officials from the city’s public security and transportation bureaus released a joint announcement about the new policy late last week.
The new security checks mark a tightening of security on Shenzhen’s transportation network and follow the introduction of similar security checks on the city’s subway system in mid-June.
A surveillance system has also been put in place to monitor public transport from a central data center that is capable of tracking the location and speed of each of the 5,000 buses that make up the city’s fleet.
These measures are the latest in a series of policies adopted by the city in a bid to ensure that the biennial sporting event goes ahead without incident, including a controversial decision to remove 80,000 “high risk” individuals suspected of posing some kind of danger from the city, which came to light in April this year.
Police categorized those eligible for removal into seven groups: people who have been released from prison but who have not been employed for a certain period of time; those who do not have a proper job and have been reported to the police for suspicious behavior; suspected drug dealers; those who check into a hotel or rent an apartment with a fake identity card; those who live on illicit income; mental patients who often behave violently; those who make public their desire to take revenge on the society.
Local police authorities have also said that they will remain vigilant to make sure that none of these “high risk” individual who were removed come back to the city during the sports event.
The 2011 Summer Universiade begins on Aug 11, and thousands of university students from over 40 countries will take part in about 20 events before the closing ceremony on Aug 23.
Links and Sources
Nanfang Daily: 下月起乘公交車(chē)要接受安檢
China Daily: Shenzhen\' s pre-Universiade eviction of 80,000 "high-risk people" sparks controversy
Caixin Online: 深圳警方稱(chēng)已清理8萬(wàn)“高危人員”