BEIJING: China recently launched an 18-month nationwide operation to crack down on organized crime conducted in cyberspace, targeting crimes like online blackmail, fraud, threats and harassment.
Nine central departments including the ministries of public security, industry and information technology, and justice, as well as the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued a circular to deploy relevant authorities to carry out the operation.
The operation aims to deepen the ongoing regular crackdown on organized crime in the information and network spaces. In 2018, China’s central government launched a three-year national campaign focusing on fighting organized crime, after which it became an ongoing campaign.
Authorities have continued to deepen the rectification of the information network, natural resources, transportation and engineering construction industries since July last year, and a number of tip-offs have been dealt with, and a batch of industrial laws and regulations have been revised and improved, according to the national office against organized crime of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. In the first half of this year, national public security organs busted 41 criminal gangs making use of the network to carry out fraudulent loans, including three mafia-like gangs, and resolved 219 related cases, according to the office.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
