China focuses more on crimes against minors

BEIJING -- China made constructive efforts in cracking down on crimes against minors while stressing victim protection and assistance in 2020, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said on Monday.

In the first 11 months of 2020, Chinese procurators approved the arrest of 34,700 individuals for committing crimes against minors and prosecuted 50,700 for such suspected crimes, said Shi Weizhong, a senior prosecutor with the SPP.

Shi said that in 2020, prosecutors offered special care to minor victims in 4,338 cases, an increase of 2.6-fold from the previous year.

To minimize further mental and emotional harm to the victims caused by reliving the traumatic experience during investigations, procurators across the country had set up over 1,000 specialized centers handling everything from evidence collecting to counseling as of October 2020.

The SPP, together with other central authorities, released a trial policy last May. It requires people working for the government and those having close contact with minors in workplaces to report any real or potential acts harming minors to the police.

Within four months after the policy was implemented, close to 500 cases were reported and prosecuted, said Shi. Shi added that many major child abuse cases were spotted promptly, thanks to doctors' reporting as required.