GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police in Chongqing in southwest China on Tuesday 14 August shot dead a bank robber. But this wasn’t any ordinary thief.
Chongqing is one of China’s largest cities and business centres, with a long economic history that includes it being the first inland commercial port in China that was opened to foreigners, in 1891. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the city has crimes on a scale larger than your average town, but the summer of 2012 is becoming noteworthy, first with the crime and then trial last week of Gu Kailai for murder, and now with the shooting death of China’s most wanted criminal. Gu Kailai, married to a wealthy and prominent politician, was tried for the murder of Neil Heywood, a 41-year-old British man, reportedly killed after they clashed on money matter. The court is expected to give its verdict Monday 20 August.
Zhou Kehua, 42, was tracked by police and caught in an alleyway near a shoe factory Tuesday, four days after his most recent bank robbery, where he killed a woman and injured two others. He was accused by the government of having killed nine people during a string of robberies carried out since 2004, a record that put him at the top of China’s most wanted list. China Daily carries a story about the huge medical bills that one of Zhou Kehua’s victim’s family will face after being critically injured in a shooting.
Links to other sites: AFP, Daily Mail, China Daily
