China toughens crackdown on cyber crime as cases increase

China launched a crackdown on cyber crime as it has seen a rapid spread of online fraud, rumor-mongering and infringements of individual privacy, among other offenses.

Chinese police have captured 6,329 suspects involved in Internet scams related to the COVID-19 epidemic, 3,870 engaged in manufacturing or selling fake or substandard face masks and protective garments and 496 suspected of illegally selling precious wild animals and their byproducts amid the campaign initiated this year, said the Ministry of Public Security.

Moreover, police nationwide have solved seven criminal cases involving the transmission of false information about the epidemic on the Internet and detained 24 suspects implicated in the illicit activities, the ministry said.

A total of 1,522 people have been given penalties for infringing upon citizens' personal information, it added.

Cyber crime has been spreading rapidly in China in recent years, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said, noting that the number of cyber crime cases handled by procuratorial organs had increased at an annual rate of more than 34 percent.

Procuratorial organs across the country approved the arrest of 89,167 suspects and filed charges against 105,658 suspects in cyber crime cases from 2018 to 2019, up 78.8 percent and 95.1 percent respectively from the figures of the previous two years, according to figures released by the SPP.