China fights "Mafia-style" gangs as crisis bites

BEIJING (Reuters) - China plans to set up a new police division to combat growing Mafia-style gang violence as the global financial crisis bites and millions find themselves out of work, state media said on Monday.

Police were keeping "a close eye" on crimes stemming from unemployment as falling demand from overseas leads to the closure of factories, especially in the once-booming south, a senior official from the Ministry of Public Security was quoted as saying.

"Murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, assault ... they dare do anything," an unidentified director of the ministry's organized crime investigation division was quoted as saying. "Gang-related crimes have become a threat to our social stability and the economy."

At least four million migrant workers have lost jobs in the cities. Urban unemployment is running at 9.4 percent, double the official figure, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) estimated last week.

On top of that, more than six million students will try to enter China's workforce next year, half a million more than last year.

"Tremendous economic and social changes that the country is going through are behind gang crimes," Liang Huaren, a professor in criminal law at China University of Political Science and Law, was quoted by the China Daily as saying.

"The large number of laid-off workers and migrants, as well as the widening gap between the rich and the poor, are also the reasons."

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)