Battle against organized crime ongoing

High-handed posture continues after campaign while prevention underlined

Procuratorates nationwide have taken solid measures to promote the long-term fight against organized crime and established prevention mechanisms for such crime, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The procuratorates were guided by the Law on Anti-organized Crime and firmly cracked down on any form of organized crime to prevent the resurgence of such crimes. From January to December last year, about 14,000 people were prosecuted for organized crime, a year-on-year decrease of 32.1 percent, according to the SPP.

In January 2018, the central authorities launched a three-year nationwide special campaign to fight organized crime. The crackdown continued after the campaign officially ended. In May 2022, the Anti-organized Crime Law took effect, giving greater legal clout to procuratorates.

Miao Shengming, director of the anti-organized crime office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and head of the first procuratorial office in the SPP, said that the report to the 20th Communist Party of China National Congress stated that important progress in the campaigns to combat and root out organized crime has been achieved, and the Peaceful China Initiative has entered a new stage, and procuratorates nationwide have comprehensively promoted the continued fight against organized crime.

Miao said that procuratorates have maintained a high-handed posture to treat organized crime, and carried out special operations targeting gangsters in fields of natural resources such as sand mining and selling, and in cyberspace.

The procuratorial organs in many places combined the problems reflected in the high-profile case of several men who brutally beat four women at a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan of Hebei province in June, to carry out reviews of cases and screen whether gangsters were involved, he said.

The procuratorates in Qinghai province focused on cases such as intentional injury, picking quarrels and provoking troubles, mob fights and illegal detention that the procuratorial organs have completed and are handling since 2020, and carried out a three-month operation to review the case. They reviewed 25,000 cases and found 204 clues about irregularities in case filing, supervision and law enforcement.

"We have taken comprehensive measures to publicize and implement the Law on Anti-organized Crime and actively participated in the construction of anti-organized crime prevention and governance mechanisms, and implemented the working mechanism for procuratorial recommendations to promote the case handling related to organized crime," he said.

For instance, procuratorial organs in Heilongjiang province have stepped up supervision over the handling of illegal gains involved in organized crime with prosecutors verifying more than 2,700 criminals involving 300 million yuan ($44.2 million).

The SPP has strengthened the mechanism and capacity of fighting organized crime and implemented the requirements of continuing the special campaign, improved the classifying and checking mechanisms for gang-related crimes and issued guiding cases to help prosecutors, he said.

"The SPP will strengthen the cooperation with other departments and use the supervised major cases as a breakthrough to ensure the full crackdown on such crime," he said.

Attention will also be paid to problems found during the operation of education and rectification of judicial and law enforcement departments and fostering talent in combating such crimes, he said.

Procuratorates have suggested heavy punishment for crimes that have seriously affected people's sense of security, he said.

From July 2020 to December 2021, commissions for political and legal affairs at all levels also conducted educational rectification for officials in public security organs and procuratorates as well as lawyers and other related groups to strengthen internal supervision and root out those who undermine trust in the departments.