Sources from the Ministry of Public Security said yesterday that
crimes involving economic activities have increased in the first
six months compared with the same period of last year while other
crimes have decreased.
The message is that the current economic boom does not just
increase the chances for people to make money, but attracts greedy
people to take advantage of systematic loopholes and people's greed
to defraud them or embezzle public funds.
The other side of the coin is that public security departments
have placed more emphasis on cracking down on economic crimes. As a
result, otherwise hidden crimes have been uncovered and the number
of cases has escalated.
That more than 90,000 fraudulent crimes were investigated
nationwide in the first half of the year, up 4.4 percent on 2006,
suggests these criminals are con. The total money lost in the fraud
cases was 4.75 billion yuan (US$627 million).
But why are crooks able to cheat so many people? It is certainly
not because the tricks are ingenious.
Rather, people are so eager to make a quick fortune they believe
just about anything is possible, including getting a free lunch.
And the fraudsters who illegally raise money appeal to the same
greed, by promising higher returns.
The increase in financial fraud cases, business crimes and cases
involving selling or making fake or shoddy commodities speaks
volumes for the need to establish sound management and supervision
systems in these sectors.
The public security ministry will open a website for the public
to report economic crimes and has established a special task force
to crack down on economic crime.
We have reason to believe the ministry's efforts will deter
criminals.
Apart from establishing sound monitoring and supervisory
mechanisms to prevent criminals from committing financial crimes
inside financial institutions or corporations, the public, as the
security ministry suggests, needs to be vigilant and not believe in
things that seem too good to be true.
The decrease in other types of crime in the first six months is
an encouraging sign that the security department has done a good
job. An increase of some 80,000 police officers in rural villages
nationwide has contributed to the improved public security
situation - the ministry did the right thing by establishing a
crime prevention network at the grass-roots level.
(China Daily August 15, 2007)