Editor’s note: the following article was translated and edited from Chinese news website 21cn.com. The article lists a number of modern China’s most violent offenders and provides short biographies of their lives and summaries of their crimes. The entry on Zhou Kehua was added to the original list of Chinese criminals.

1) Zhou Kehua
Zhou Kehua (周克华) was born in Jinkou town outside of Chongqing in 1970, and had a history of criminal activity. He was jailed on molestation charges for two weeks in 1985 and was sentenced to re-education through labor for illegal possession of firearms in 1993. According to police, Zhou is believed to have been a mercenary in Burma until 2004, and in 2005, he was jailed for arms trafficking. Zhou is most infamous for his involvement in at least nine murder and robbery cases from 2004-2012. Following a large-scale manhunt, Zhou was shot and killed by police on August 14, 2012.

2) Long Zhiming
Between 1983-1985, Long Zhiming (龙治民), from Yangyuhe Town in Shaanxi Province, murdered 48 people in his hometown and then buried the bodies in his yard. He also stole 573 RMB from his victims. Following his arrest by the local Procuratorate in August 1985, Long showed no signs of a mental health disorder and was declared legally sane. Authorities commented that he seemed fairly intelligent and answered all of their questions clearly. He was charged with intentional homicide and was executed in September of that year.

3) Two Kings of Dongbei
In 1983, Wang Zongfang (王宗坊) and Wang Zongwei (王宗玮), two brothers from Shenyang also known as “the Two Kings of Dongbei”, went on a crime spree across China. On Chinese New Year’s Eve they killed four people in Shenyang, then fled the city after a bounty was put on their heads. Seven months later and after leaving a trail of carnage across China, using guns and hand grenades to kill and injure a total of 18 police officers and civilians, they were tracked down to a small town outside of Guangchang, Jiangxi Province where, as the story goes, nearly 30,000 public security officers, armed police, military troops and the local militia surrounded them, and ultimately shot them dead.  The Two Kings of Dongbei were the first criminals to have a bounty put on their head in China’s modern history.

4) Bai Baoshan
In 1983, Bai Baoshan (白宝山), a 26-year-old native of Xushui County in Hebei was sent to prison for stealing. In prison, Bai began to obsess over taking revenge on society for imprisoning him and “reclaiming” his lost youth, and even killed two of his fellow inmates. Following his release, from March 1996 through August 1997, Bai went on to kill 15 more people (both civilians and police), injure 15 and steal 1.4 million RMB, becoming China’s “Public Enemy No. 1” in the process. Bai’s trial was held in March 1998. He was given the death penalty and executed the following April.

5) Zhang Jun
A high school dropout from a small village outside of Changde in Hunan Province, Zhang Jun (张君) began developing a reputation as a hoodlum when he was still a teenager in the eighties. During the early nineties, he delved further into a life of crime, masterminding a gang that racked up more than 10 separate counts of armed robbery (6 million RMB in total). He and his gang were held responsible for the injury or death of nearly 50 people over an 8-year time span. Zhang and his gang were finally captured by the police in September 2000, and following trial Zhang was executed in May 2001.

6) Yang Xinhai
Born in 1970, Yang Xinhai grew up in extreme poverty in Zhengyang County, Henan Province. Dropping out of high school in his junior year, he left his hometown and proceeded to float around Shanxi  and Hebei Province for a number of years working as a laborer in coal mines and construction sites. During this period he did time at a re-education through labor facility (twice) and in prison for theft and attempted rape, and was released in 1999. From September 2000 until August 2003, Yang went on a killing spree, murdering 67 people (mostly in their homes at night; sometimes whole families) and raping 23 people. After being caught in November 2003, Yang was dubbed the “Monster Killer” by Chinese media and was subsequently executed in February 2004. Yang was China’s most prolific serial killer to date.

7) Zhang Xianguang
In 1985, 20-year-old Zhang Xianguang (张显光) was sentenced to three years of re-education through labor for pickpocketing in Jixi city, Heilongjiang Province. Years later, after committing a series of armed robberies that left seven dead and 11 injured, Zhang and several accomplices robbed a bank in Shenyang in 2003, killing one in the process and leaving with a large sum of money. This incident went on to be called the “January 18 case” by Chinese media, and resulted in a warrant being issued for Zhang’s arrest. In August of that year, Zhang was captured, tried and later executed.

8) Xie Xianrong
In 1983 Xie Xianrong (谢先荣) was first sentenced to eight years in prison for theft. After getting out, Xie reverted back to his criminal ways in the early aughts. He managed to buy a sub-machine gun in 2002 for 10,000 RMB, and then proceeded to use it to steal an armored vehicle used for banking services in Qianjiang city in Hubei the next year. The incident became known at the “September 29” case, and resulted in four dead. Xie was eventually tracked down by a large task force of armed police, and was killed during the resulting cross-fire on October 12, 2003.

9) The Zhang Shuhai Gang
From 1996-2000, the Zhang Shuhai gang—Zhang Shuhai (张书海), Zhang Hongchao (张宏超), Zhang Shijing (张世镜), Qiao Hongjun (乔红军),  Zhang Yuping (张玉萍), and Zhang Xiaoma (张小马)—used hunting riffles, explosives and hammers to rob three separate banks in Zhengzhou, stealing 2.5 million RMB and killing a security guard in the process. They were captured on December 9, 2000 and all sentenced to death by firing squad.
 

Source: news.21cn.com; wikipedia
 

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Keywords: Zhou Kehua Chinese criminals China’s most violent offenders