Legal on the road

Shanghai has launched a three-month crackdown on illegally operated vehicles. The joint efforts by the city's transportation administrative law enforcement department and the municipal police will focus on areas around the railway and subway stations, the airports and the hypermarkets.

The announcement came after weeks of news media censure of Shanghai's questionable entrapment methods used by its law enforcement officers. The most appalling case involved Henan-native Sun Zhongjie who chopped off his finger with a knife in order to prove his innocence.

Shanghai's district and municipal authorities were slow in responding to this public relations crisis before it snowballed into a nationwide crusade against Shanghai.