Crime continues to fall as police pursue hard-line

Public security organs have always practiced the "people-centered" principle, and worked to eliminate risks, ensure security and stability and promote development, said Jia Junqiang, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security.

"We have always focused on prominent problems affecting public security and enhanced the protection of personal and property rights," Jia said.

From 2017 to 2021, public security organs nationwide dealt with 418,000 financial cases, recovering losses of 276.47 billion yuan ($41.44 billion). They also carried out special operations to crack down on illegal fundraising, handling 1,072 cases of illegal peer-to-peer lending, the ministry said.

Operation Fox Hunt, an ongoing operation to track down economic fugitives, has netted 6,400 fugitives and recovered 30 billion yuan of stolen money since 2012.

In strengthening supervision of cybersecurity, public security organs focused on targeting cybercrimes such as the infringement of personal information, hacker attacks and paid posts, and instructed network operators and data processors in implementing measures to maintain network security.

Great effort has also been made to crack down on organized crime since 2018, when the central government launched a three-year nationwide campaign. Since then, public security organs have arrested 3,600 mafia-like underworld organizations and some 11,000 criminal gangs involved in organized crime, leading to the resolution of 246,000 criminal cases.

As traditional crime spread online, new crimes such as telecom fraud developed rapidly, seriously jeopardizing property, security and people's legitimate rights. Public security organs have continued to focus on these crimes, and have helped curbed the rapid rise of telecom fraud.

From 2017 to 2021, the police resolved 1.23 million cases of telecom fraud and arrested 1.34 million suspects. Last year, the national anti-fraud center stopped the payment of 329.1 billion yuan in emergency cases, successfully saving 28.91 million people from being defrauded.

In addition, the Ministry of Public Security deployed public security organs nationwide to crack down on cross-border gambling in 2020. By March 2022, police had investigated 42,000 cases of cross-border gambling and related crimes and arrested more than 200,000 suspects.

Years of attention to the kidnapping and trafficking of women and children by public security departments have also yielded results. Cases of kidnapping and trafficking decreased respectively by 88.1 percent and 82.6 percent between 2013 and 2021.

Last year, the ministry launched "Reunion", an operation that targeted child trafficking and began the search for those already missing. So far, public security organs have successfully solved more than 400 cold cases, arresting 1,124 suspects and recovering 11,198 missing and abducted children.

Since 2012, the incidence of serious violent crime has decreased each year, the ministry said. The national detection rate for active homicide stands at 99.9 percent and China is one of the countries with the lowest incidences of serious violent crime in the world.

In addition, rising drug crime has been curbed following the launch of multiple national operations targeting the making and selling of drugs, as well the enhancement of international cooperation in drug control over the years.

Between 2012 and 2021, the police dealt with 1.18 million drug-related crimes, arrested 1.38 million suspects and seized 674 tons of drugs. In addition, the number of newly discovered addicts under 35 dropped by 66.4 percent between 2012 and 2021.

These results have come with great sacrifice.

"The police are at the forefront of tackling crime, ensuring social stability and safeguarding the public. Over the past five years, 2,100 police and auxiliary officers have died and 50,000 have been injured in the line of duty," said Jia.