Rarely, though, has the country had a force to contend with like the cleaning woman depicted in the video below.
    The video, apparently taken this week, shows man brandishing a cleaver at patrons as he attempts to rob a Shanghai branch of the Agricultural Bank of China. At one point,  he threatens to cut the throat of one female hostage. When a branch security guard begins chasing the robber, a female cleaner wielding a cleaning instrument also joins the chase. (China Real Time couldn’t determine whether the instrument of destruction was a broom or mop.) Bypassing the guard, the woman pursues the knife-wielding robber across the room with a series of emphatic whacks, as though he was a large fly.
    Her gallant actions — and that of several others who helped detain the robber — didn’t go unrecognized. The state-run Shanghai Daily reported that the bank this week awarded each of the five who stepped in with awards of 10,000 yuan each, along with certificates and armfuls of pink lilies.
    Watch the video here:

    China bank robbery fail: guards, staff fight back knife-wielding attacker



    Published on Jul 15, 2014
    A bank robbery at a subbranch of the Agricultural Bank of China in Shanghai was foiled in just five minutes Monday by bank staffers and people in and outside the bank. The robbery was motivated by loss of money in gambling during the World Cup.

    The surveillance video showed a man walking into the bank in a black shirt and a black hat, putting a knife against the neck of a woman customer manager and asking a clerk for money.

    The robber threatened to kill the woman if the clerk failed to turn over the money on time.

    Upon hearing the alarm, the security guards evacuated some of the customers and locked the door to prevent the robber from fleeing. The janitor and citizens joined the security guards in cornering and eventually pinning down the robber.

    Police officers later arrived and took him away.
    – Te-Ping Chen