Chen Dapeng, a professor with Southwest China University, said that a survey of 76 colleges and universities shows that they had a total of 9,276 criminal cases during the 1999-2000 period.

Chen, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, said that 164 students and teachers in these universities and colleges died of unnatural deaths during that period.

Eighteen professors and students in eight universities and colleges in big cities of Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Chengdu were murdered by gangsters.

Chen, 72, a teacher for post-graduates, said that the handling of almost all cases involving the unnatural deaths of teachers and students caused disputes because of the absence of a special law on campus security.

He said, "For a long time schools of various types have not had a law to go by in campus security that involves the safety of hundreds of millions of teachers and students, stability of schools and the maintenance of school order."

The development of China’s educational undertaking necessitates the formulation of the Campus Security Law at an early date so that campus security management will have a law to follow.

(Xinhua 03/10/2001)