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More than half of Chinese living in New Zealand feel unsafe: survey

Xinhua, August 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Sixty percent of Chinese people living in New Zealand feel unsafe, said a New Zealand researcher on Friday in a call for closer engagement between the Chinese community and police.

Chinese studying, working and living in New Zealand needed to report crimes to police, and police needed to re-engage with the Chinese community, said political polling expert Dr Andrew Zhu of the University of Auckland.

Zhu said he had conducted an online survey this month on WeChat, a popular Chinese instant-messaging service, which attracted an unprecedented 11,675 responses, and suggested a significant number in the Chinese community had lost faith in the police.

The survey found more than half of Chinese living in New Zealand felt unsafe in their homes and neighborhoods, while 62.3 percent were dissatisfied with public safety.

The most worried group was international students, at 70 percent.

More than 90 percent were not satisfied with punishment for crimes or law enforcement measures to combat crime.

Motivated to do the survey following the racially-charged assault of a Chinese restaurateur in her Auckland restaurant this month, he was shocked by the massive response, Zhu said in a statement.

"It looks like a build-up, an eruption. Too many crimes involving Chinese have happened in the last six months, but the Chinese haven't been taking a pro-active approach," he said.

The comments suggested many crimes went unreported because of language or cultural barriers -- especially among older Chinese who emigrated to join their families.

"People said they don't rely on police because 'they can't help me,' or that cases were reported two years ago and they never heard back, or the response time was too slow, or police didn't come because nobody was hurt," he said.

Zhu said it was important to remember that the survey measured perceptions of crime and safety, rather than actual crime.

Artificially high expectations of New Zealand as "an ultra-safe oasis" could inflate perceptions of threat when newcomers inevitably heard reports of crime in the media or social media, or experienced it themselves, he said. Endit