A Chinese man convicted of kidnapping a young girl for ransom, then killing her when her father didn’t pay fast enough, stands in front of a makeshift court as a judge reviews his case. After his appeal was rejected, the man was immediately tied to a post and garroted, Shanghai, 1932 [693 x 370].

[HOW CHINA DEALS WITH KIDNAPPERS](https://archives.albany.edu/description/catalog/apap301aspace_81ff68918cafe52ff6a5e85606856c4d)

The author was way too excited by this. Now, in fairness to him, there was a kidnapping epidemic in the Depression-era United States. That said, even then, the situations weren’t exactly comparable. The United States had not only just made interstate kidnapping a federal offense , but it had the means to enforce such a law. Many other states had also massively upped the penalties for kidnapping. In contrast, China was teetering on the edge of anarchy. Unironically, half the country was ruled by literal warlords.