is it right to say pick-pocketing is socially acceptable in china?

 
my name is martin , i live in guangzhou and its not all good ,
i will like to share  my experience with other memebers of this forum .
is it me or is pick-pocketing and theft  a socially accepted dispensation in china .
i was coming back from my work place the other day , and met up with a fellow friend of mine , as we were strolling down to our residential area, two men passed us and were being followed by a dwarf -size man, who was basically trying to disposses them of their wallet stacked at their back pocket . to our amazement , there were 10's of fellow chinese people ,who unconcernedly turned into on-lookers and watched with a glee on their faces and this man tried to pick the wallet out . one cannot help but wonder , were they amused at the expertise of the pick-pocket or was it a must see movie clip -which they had no role but to watch the drama unfold.

for me , i was perplexed and wondered at the level of social irresponsibility in this country ,
i have lost three cell phones , my credentials and loads of cash to pick pockets and thieves. its very disheartening that such a growing economy has such level of unchalancy amongst its people .

a word of advice , if you are coming to guangzhou , do be on your guard, because you may just be having the final moments with your possessions.

In China, pick-pocket is regarded as petty crime, in a sense, not regarded as real criminal, and in some cases rhe thieves are minority people, even you take them to police, they will be released due to the protection of minority policy. As the thieves are not afraid of being caught, it slowly make a strange sence is that people do not want the trouble to stop the thives  but just keep their own pocket safe, that is the main reason why people are so indiffenent to such thing, especially in cities like Guangzhou where people comes from everywhere and  do not know each others.  That policy has been abused and there has been a hot topic being argued on the web for quite a long time. Recently, plain cloth police has been deployed to deal with such increasing problem and in some cities there are also civilian organisations to catch such pick-pocket thieves.

Martin, I'm sorry to hear about your story.  I never lived in Guangzhou, only visited a couple of times, but I do have an impression that there are more bold thieves in Guangzhou than other major cities like Beijing or Shanghai.  But tourists and obvious non-locals more often become victims of pick-pockets and other crimes, and it appears everywhere in the world.  So do be careful of your belongings wherever you go. 

And I agree with you, I'm concerned with the indifference of people who witness pick-pocketing on the street in China.  I lived in New York for a couple of years.  I can't say New Yorkers are better :-)

I remember many years ago  in USA cities there were cilivan organisation known as "Subway Angels" who patrolled and arrested pick pocket thieves and other criminals in the sub way. I heard recently such thing happaned in a major tourism city. Citizens organisated themselves and caught a lot of pick-pocket thieves, beat them up before handing  them over to the Police.