A CENSUS taker was threatened at knife point in a Longgang housing estate Friday night, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.
The census taker, whose identity was not disclosed, was not hurt, the paper said. An unidentified 24-year-old homeowner pointed a knife at the census taker s neck after opening the door. He has been taken away by police for questioning, the paper said.
Census takers have complained of encountering huge difficulties in the course of their work since the national census began in Shenzhen on Oct. 10.
Most of us were rejected by residents despite wide publicity of the census before it began, one unidentified census taker told the paper.
The Daily said citizens have also become less cooperative in sharing personal details as they become increasingly aware of their right to privacy. Although census takers are sworn to confidentiality, citizens are suspicious that the information they give can be used against them.
Some residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan also refused to let census takers in, thinking the census has nothing to do with them as they don t live in the city permanently, said the census taker. Some claimed they didn t speak putonghua and refused to let us in.
A Southern Metropolis Daily report said two census takers had been beaten while making home visits.
Further difficulties were reported in urban villages where property owners denied census takers entry because they were afraid the census would annoy their tenants.
Six million census takers will be deployed across the country from Nov. 1 to 10 to account for more than 1.3 billion people the first such tally since 2000. It is the sixth time China has conducted a national census but the first time it has counted people where they live, not where they are legally registered.
Under the current household registration system, known as hukou, citizens are designated as either urban or rural. Migrant workers from the countryside are registered in their hometowns, not in the cities where many have lived for years.
(SD News)
