Overall crime rates in China are low, particularly compared to other major developing countries. As a western trained lawyer living and working in China over 30 years, I have seen this first hand.
There are many reasons for this. Firstly there is the Chinese culture, which is probably the most significant factor behind the low overall crime rates. China and the Chinese take pride in a history of thousands of years of civilization, philosophy, a culture of respect, and the influences of Confucianism, stressing respect for authority, and Buddhism which encourages letting go of selfish desires. Because of this background committing a crime is shameful to Chinese people, not just individually but to their family. If a person commits a crime, the entire neighborhood will know of it, and will look down on that person and their relatives.
Violent crimes are rare in China. Not least because of the pervasiveness of the Chinese security state and police force. Also a factor, criminal punishments are invariably harsh, even something as small as a street brawl can carry hard consequences. Particularly for drug related crimes, which often carry the death penalty. Prevalence of violent crimes are reduced overall as a result of the almost total lack of guns in the country.
Each community in China has a neighborhood committees (居委会) which closely monitors activity in the neighborhood and residential complexes. These local committees are highly attuned to developments in the neighborhood and are very responsive. There is almost always one or more guards in a neighborhood keeping an eye on things.
When there are issues or disagreements in a neighborhood, residents, security guards and local police will firstly encourage those involved to engage in a mediation process, and work toward resolving the issues through discussion. In most cases, a dispute or disagreement can be peacefully resolved between two parties with a mediator in the middle. When issues are resolved in this way, it takes away the incentive and opportunity for a crime. Anger is dispelled in a public forum. Matters resolved via this mediation process are not reported as crimes because no crime has been committed. This lowers overall crime rates.