China is blessed to be a country where crimes involving guns are extremely infrequent at best. Hence it comes as a surprise that a sporting celebrity has been handed jail time in Nanjing for being in possession of a firearm.
The news emerged yesterday, 15 October, that the Intermediate People’s Court of Nanjing have passed judgement in the case of footballer, Wang Zihua, and his being found to have a gun in his possession back in 2018.
A former player for Shenzhen Kaisa FC, Wang was at the time released on bail pending trial, on suspicion of the illegal trade of guns and ammunition, reports The Paper.
With the judge finally returning to the case, Wang confessed to his illegal possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 1 year’s imprisonment, suspended for 1 year, 6 months.
Wang was born in Shenyang City, capital of Liaoning Province, on 3 April, 1993. He played previously for Guangzhou R&F before transferring to Shenzhen for the 2013/14 season.
The midfielder is worth €25,000 on the player transfer market, according to transfermarket.com.
Firearms are nigh on impossible to obtain in China. And it is a rare occurrence indeed that an ordinary member of the public have any in their possession. Likewise, shooting incidents are virtually unheard of; indeed, only two notable cases involving firearms have emerged in Eastern China in the past 3 years.
In November 2017, police in Jiangsu Province’s Taizhou City seized 180 guns and more than 3,000 pieces thereof. In order to deceive authorities, the parts were sold individually online for the buyers to later reassemble. 14 people were arrested in connection with the illegal trade.
Elsewhere, in Fuyang City of Anhui Province in 2018, an 11-year-old girl was left partially paralyzed after being shot by an 8-year-old boy who picked up his father’s shotgun, thinking it was a toy. Two villagers were jailed for illegal possession of a firearm.
