Chinese officials are told to identify local 'losers'

Officials in China have been ordered to identify local 'losers' following a spike in violent crime.

The authorities will have to step up their screening of people identified to have emotional or financial problems following a series of mass stabbings and other violent incidents across the country. 

Traditionally, these people were identified to attempt to help provide social support. However, media reports indicate that this has shifted now to become a means of finding members of the public who are 'prone to vent their anger in public.'

In China, these people are usually defined as those who have experienced five or six 'kinds of failures.'  

This typically varies from those who have mental health problems to those who have had relationship difficulties or struggled to make a living.

An official in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang told the South China Morning Post that the police had been a part of the most recent order to identify potential troublemakers. 

The official, who wished not to be named, said: 'Before the latest round of surveys starting in early September, the police came to brief us on the recent cases of random attacks on the public.

'They told us that our job is very important because if we can sift out all these so-called losers and put them under watch, we can reduce the chances of them hurting people on the streets randomly.'

This follows a wave of violence across China including the high-profile case of a man who went on a knife-wielding rampage in a Shanghai supermarket on September 30 - killing three and injuring 30.

The suspect was arrested at the scene where he claimed he travelled to China's largest city to 'vent his anger due to a personal economic dispute.'

A similar incident occurred in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou when three people were stabbed outside a school. 

Some cities have also started to publicly identify people. Ningbo - in Zhejiang - released figures in July that revealed that out of 3,000 household visits 16 people who had 'suffered major failures' were uncovered. 

The former deputy editor of Study Times which is the newspaper of the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, which is tasked with training future officials for the Communist Party, Deng Yuwen claimed the grassroot system of curbing attacks by identifying individuals early had been highly successful.

However, his praise came with a warning that too many people under surveillance was a 'slippery slope.'