China Shifts to High Gear to Tighten Campus Security

China's central and local governments have shifted to high gear in a campus security clampdown after a string of school and kindergarten attacks.
Campus safety will be a critical factor in assessing the work of local governments administered by central China's Hubei Province. The government's achievements will be nullified if any serious campus security breach occurs, said Yang Song, deputy head of the provincial committee of comprehensive management of public security, Monday in a telephone conference.
The province will hold government officials and school management accountable for any campus security breach and would enforce stern punishments, Yang added.
Hubei is among 18 provinces, regions and municipalities that have made similar pledges.
Provincial-level officials of north China's Hebei and Shanxi provinces on Monday inspected the security work of primary schools and kindergartens in provincial capitals of Shijiazhuang and Taiyuan cities, urging strict enforcement of campus security requirements.
The education authorities of 14 provinces, regions and municipalities held conferences to discuss how to improve campus security.
Senior officials of Beijing, Tianjin, Tibet, Hebei, Hubei, Shandong, Henan and many other provinces and regions on Tuesday inspected local schools in a bid to reduce campus security gaps.
Provincial governments ordered more police patrols near campuses, 24-hour ID checks at school gates and guards to be stationed in campuses.
Some larger cities took even stricter measures. In southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, professional security guards with batons, handcuffs and pepper spray are now stationed in schools and kindergartens, according to a statement from Chongqing's public security department.
In many provincial capitals, security cameras had been installed in campuses and guards now had better equipment, according to statements from municipal governments.
These actions come after Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said campus security was a "major political task" on Monday at a conference on maintaining stability.
At the conference, Zhou called for a national clampdown on campus security entailing more police patrols near the campuses, better-equipped campus guards and a system that holds headmasters and officials accountable for security breaches.
He called on public health and civil authorities to improve treatment and management of people suffering from mental disorders as some of the campus attackers were found to be mentally ill.
Zhou urged local governments to listen to the needs and complaints of the people and relieve their dissatisfactions in time to prevent violence, especially campus attacks.
Zhou's words came after a string of attacks on school and kindergarten children last week.
On April 30, five kindergarten children and a teacher were injured when a man attacked them with a hammer before killing himself at a school in Weifang City, east China's Shandong Province.
On April 29, 29 children and three adults were injured by a man armed with knife at the Zhongxin Kindergarten in Taixing City, in eastern Jiangsu Province.
And 16 children and a teacher at a primary school in Guangdong Province were attacked on April 28.