Chinese robbers face shoot-to-kill policy

Police to increase training in shooting

By Duncan Hewitt in Shanghai

Police in central China have been ordered to follow a shoot-to-kill policy against bank robbers in the act of committing a crime.

At least 12 people have died in bank robberies across China in recent months and police officials have called for extra vigilance in the approach to Chinese New Year in late January.

But few have gone as far as Chen Xunqiu, the chief of police in the central province of Hubei.

State media said he announced that police had the right to shoot dead anyone who they found in the process of robbing any financial institution.

He also ordered police across the province to increase training in shooting and hand-to-hand combat.

'Reasonable order'

An article in the Guangzhou Daily newspaper asked whether police should be playing the part of executioners at a time when China was seeking to strengthen the rule of law.

But it said China's legal code stated that defensive action leading to the deaths of criminals who were threatening human life did not constitute an offence.

The newspaper said police rules called for a verbal warning to be given first, but police could open fire:

• if this did not stop the crime
• if there were not time to give a warning
• if giving a warning might endanger the lives of innocent people

If these rules were followed, the paper concluded, the Hubei police chief's order was both legal and reasonable, as such crimes were damaging social stability.

Police in Hubei's capital, Wuhan, recently hailed the success of bank robbery prevention exercises after a bank in the city foiled an armed raid.

Yet there were criticisms from local media after another bank staged a mock armed robbery to test the reactions of its workers - without informing staff or customers in advance.