Inspection teams reinforce nationwide crackdowns
BEIJING: By October last year, 10 national inspection teams headed by ministerial-level officials had visited 10 provinces and regions to ensure the smooth progress of an ongoing crackdown on gang-related crime.
On Jan 24 last year, the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China’s Cabinet, launched a new round of the campaign against organised criminal gangs.
The teams, comprising 335 members from various departments, including public security authori- ties, prosecutors and people’s courts, stayed for a month in the 10 areas, which included Chongqing and the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Fujian, Shandong and Henan.
By the end of the year, inspection teams will have visited every province, region and municipality and will revisit some of the places at certain times, according to the office leading the crackdown on criminal gangs and organised crime.
The inspectors visited more than 800 villages in 99 cities, sent out more than 10,000 questionnaires to members of the public and spoke with about 6,000 officials at all levels – provincial, city, county, township and village – to uncover problems.
The teams received more than 170,000 tipoffs and directly supervised the handling of about 6,600 key clues, according to the office.
In the areas visited by the teams, police cracked down on 96 mafiastyle groups, and seized money and assets worth some five billion yuan (RM3bil). About 1,300 suspects turned themselves in, said the office.
Chen Yixin, secretary-general of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, said the performance of local Party committees and governments during the campaign was one of the focuses of the inspection.
Ran Saiguang, a professor of law at the National Police University for Criminal Justice in Baoding, said the inspection teams’ main goal was to make sure local governments were conducting the crackdown in line with the decisions and arrangements of the central leadership.