News this week of a 19-year-old South African girl who is being released from a Nanjing detention centre after she was arrested on a visa violation has come as a warning to those wanting to work in Jiangsu, while also serving to highlight China’s increasing regard for law and order throughout society.
The girl’s father told The Cape Times that he had not had contact with his daughter since she was detained, saying that, “[this has been the] worse week of my life”. A Jiangsu judge has ordered the girl to be deported and that her (and others’) flight(s) home must be paid by the school by way of punishment.
Earlier in the month, an American student, who had spent several months in a Nanjing detention centre for allegedly sharing an illegal substance at Nanjing University, returned home after being deported. Foreigners are reporting a rise in personal visits to their home by police, while others have noticed regular school and workplace inspections.
The recent rise in Nanjing law enforcement is not limited to the foreign community; it affects everyone. Last month, Nanjing police inspected the offices of buildings around the city, and closed down all training institutes serving children that were operating above the third floor, due to health and safety reasons.
In addition, training centers that were deemed unsafe were ordered to shut down immediately, leaving hundreds of businesses, teachers, students and parents at a loss as to what to do next.
Meanwhile on the roads, Nanjing drivers report a stricter approach by police enforcing many regulations, those which include people cycling on the opposite sides of the road, and drivers using the steering wheel incorrectly, to name a few to which The Nanjinger has been alerted.
Elsewhere, in other fields, more non-manufacturing days are being enforced for larger polluting factories while stricter punishments lie in wait for those who disobey the rules.
It is well known that while certain laws that regard the health and safety of people indeed did exist before in the city of Nanjing, whether they were acted upon was another matter. Today, the connection between less corruption and more law enforcement has never been more obvious.
