BEIJING, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Beijing police on Thursday started
lethal knives checks in schools and universities in an effort to prevent campus
violence.
In the last two months, Beijing reported four stabbings in schools and
universities, in which, a student and a teacher were killed and two students
were injured. Knife fights have resulted in six deaths and 13 injuries across
China this year.
The rising campus violence has prompted the city's public security and
educational authorities to carry out checks over lethal implements, which will
last until Dec. 20, said Liu Zhiguo, an official with the Xicheng District
branch of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.
The lethal knives, including 10-cm or longer daggers, flick knives and
double-edged blades, are forbidden from sale around campuses. It is also
forbidden to carry those knives on or around campuses.
"Some boys are afraid of being bullied so they have knives on them," said
Liu, who is in charge of the checks on primary and secondary schools in Xicheng
District, one of Beijing's downtown districts.
"But they are mistaken. Carrying a knife is more likely to involve them in
fights."
Police will also give lectures, telling students it is illegal to carry
those knives and calling on them to provide clues, Liu said.
According to China's law, illegally making, selling or carrying the banned
knives will attract detention for up to 15 days with a fine of up to 200 yuan
(about 30 U.S. dollars).
The latest campus violence in Beijing occurred on Oct. 28 at the China
University of Political Science and Law. A senior student named Fu Chengli burst
into a classroom and cut the 43-year-old professor Cheng Chunming twice with a
kitchen knife. The teacher died later in hospital. The murder's motive has not
been made clear.
On Sept. 18, a student was killed in a dormitory room over a dispute at the
China University of Information in Beijing. On the same day, two students fought
in a classroom at the China University of Petroleum, and one of them suffered
many stab wounds on the head and the neck.