The 1983 "Strike Hard" Anti-crime Campaign, or 1983"Stern Blow" Anti-crime Campaign, was a massive anti-crime campaign which began in September 1983 and received support from Deng Xiaoping, then paramount leader of China. The campaign lasted for three years and five months, and was launched because of the nationwide worsening public safety after the Cultural Revolution. During the "three battles" of the "Strike Hard" campaign, some 197,000 criminal groups were cracked down, 1.772 million people were arrested and 1.747 million people received legal punishment, with 24,000 sentenced to death, which had an immediate positive effect on public safety. However, controversies also arose, such as whether some of the legal punishments were too harsh and whether the legal processes of many cases were complete and rigorous.
Brief history
Background
After the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 and the launch of Reform and Opening-up in 1978, crime rates in China—including property crimes—were surging according to Chinese government, and as response the "Strike Hard" campaign was launched to counter such surge in criminal offenses. According to the Ministry of Public Security of China, in 1980 there were over 750,000 criminal cases nationwide and 50,000 were "serious cases", in 1981 the numbers were 890,000 and 67,000, and in 1982 the numbers were 740,000 and 64,000.
Progress and results
The "Strike Hard" campaign was launched during the early stage of legal re-construction in China when the legal system had been almost destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. The criminal law of China came into effect in 1980 and the new Constitution of China was passed in 1982; subsequently, the campaign was formally launched in September 1983 and lasted until January 1987, receiving support from Deng Xiaoping. There were three main battles of the "Strike Hard" campaign. In total, some 197,000 criminal groups were cracked down, 1.772 million people were arrested, 321,000 were re-educated through labor and 1.747 million people received legal punishment, with 24,000 sentenced to death, which had an immediate positive effect on public safety. A number of people arrested were children or relatives of government officials at various levels, including the grandson of Zhu De, demonstrating the principle of "all are equal before the law".
Controversies
However, some of the cases in the campaign were actually "unjust, false, wrongful cases" and some people received overly harsh punishments, resulting in legal controversies, in addition to the fact that the long-term effect of "Strike Hard" campaign on improving public safety has been widely disputed.
