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You and your girlfriend are right, you are taking a risk by intervening in a crime. Chinese people can stand by and do nothing as petty thieves operate with impunity, but my instinct (and the instinct of most foreigners, it seems) is to intervene because it is the right thing to do. Chinese have a lot redeemable qualities but some bad ones as well like littering and not helping strangers in need.
It is also the instinct of most Chinese people, but the truth hurts.