China's serious crime rate was down in the first half of the
year, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Tuesday.
Bomb attacks were down 27.2 percent, murders down 9.1 percent
and arson down 7.9 percent, said Wu Heping, spokesman of the
ministry, at a press conference.
Cases of theft remained at the same level as the previous year,
with the number totaling 1.45 million.
Some 46,000 cases related to drugs and gambling were recorded,
down 8.9 percent.
The country's police authorities have investigated more than two
million crime cases in the first half of 2007, of which about
920,000 have been solved.
However, the number of economic crimes in China increased by 10
percent to 36,000 during the first half of 2007.
"A total of 1,247 crimes involved production of fraudulent and
shoddy products, up 24.3 percent on the same period of 2006," said
Wu.
China also reported 3,695 financial fraud cases and 558
smuggling cases, up 14.3 percent and 23.7 percent respectively. The
number of intellectual property rights piracy cases reached 1,094,
up 2.7 percent.
Cases involving fraudulent mobile phone text messages were also
on the rise.
"We found some criminals from Taiwan had colluded with those on
the mainland to conduct fraud crimes through mobile phone short
messages, and most of them were based in southeast China's Fujian
Province," Wu said.
Almost every mobile phone user in China has received text
messages involving financial fraud, smuggling and pornography. One
of the most common is telling the mobile phone owner that his or
her bank card has been used and asking for his or her personal
information.
Wu said victims of the fraudulent text messages have been found
overseas, including the Republic of Korea, southeast Asian
countries and Europe. And the criminals' bases have moved from
Fujian Province to other places on the mainland.
(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2007)