mandag 24. november 2025

The Class Anxieties Behind China’s Millions of Security Guards

One morning in the fall of 2016, a young man dressed in black was wandering around the Dadi residential community in central Shanghai. For several hours, he anxiously talked on his phone as he observed the people passing by. He knew that his ex-girlfriend was renting an apartment there. Security guard Liu Yong, who was on patrol that morning, noticed him.

Around noon, a young woman and a man came out of a building. The man dressed in black headed directly toward them and pulled a knife out of his pocket. Recognizing the menacing face, the woman started screaming and ran to a nearby grocery store. While she pleaded with a shop worker for help, the man in black had already killed her companion.

Liu was the first person to arrive on the scene, quickly followed by other security guards. The victim was lying on the ground covered in blood, while the murderer was attempting to pry open the shutters that the grocery store had rolled down to protect the woman. Liu was terrified and could only recall calling the police and an ambulance. The murderer was caught later that day at a railway station.