Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild

xiaohuaner

110 Overseas ，The last decade has witnessed the rapid spread of telecom and onlinefraud globally, which seriously infringes on people's legitimate rights andinterests, becoming a prominent crime and a public hazard. To address thisproblem, the Chinese police have been committed to intensifying their effortsin the combat against and control of such crimes, and strengtheninginternational law enforcement cooperation, which has enabled them to accumulatesuccessful experience, build up best practices and set examples for theircounterparts around the world.

Upholding the people-centered principle, the Communist Party of China and theChinese government have attached great importance to countering telecom andonline fraud. Equal importance has been given to both combat and control. Anefficient multi-department collaborative working mechanism has beenestablished, and the Anti-telecom and Online Fraud Law has been formulated andenacted, which provides a strong legal foundation. Targeting thecharacteristics of such crimes, the Chinese police have conducted specializedstudy and research, set up specialized task forces, initiated specializedinvestigation against major cases and utilized specialized techniques.

The Chinese police have synchronized their efforts both internally andexternally, and launched a series of campaigns and operations, effectivelycurbing the high momentum of these crimes, retrieving a large number ofeconomic losses, and winning wide recognition from the public and theinternational community. During their international law enforcementengagements, the Chinese police frequently received requests from theircounterparts to share their experience and effective practices in this field.

Telecom and online fraud is a typical transnational organized crime. Fraud densare often located across countries and regions, targeting vulnerableindividuals and groups regardless of their nationalities.

The Chinese police, through international law enforcement cooperation, havejoined hands with their international counterparts to carry out operations andachieved significant results. Operation Great Wall, jointly launched with theSpanish police in 2019, has become a successful example of transnational lawenforcement cooperation.

From March to June this year, China, together with 76 INTERPOL member states,jointly participated in the anti-fraud Operation First Light initiated byINTERPOL, which destroyed 1,770 fraud dens in as many countries, arrested over2,000 suspects and intercepted more than US$50 million in illicit funds. It wasalso found that some Chinese citizens were involved in fraud activities abroad,and the majority of them were tempted by the promise of high payments, cheatedand coerced into being smuggled abroad, and some of them were kidnapped anddetained illegally, and a few of them were even beaten and abused to death inthe criminal dens.

The Chinese police, together with relevant departments, have actively carriedout rescue and education, and encouraged them to return home throughinternational law enforcement cooperation, and made every effort to provideassistance and employment. The immigration authorities, in accordance with theprovisions of the Exit and Entry Administration Law, have taken necessarymeasures such as restricting the exit of persons engaged in telecom and onlinefraud.

According to an officer with the Ministry of Public Security, the criminalityof telecom and online fraud is characterized by its specialization,industrialization and being increasingly organized and transnational, amid therapid development of global digitalization.

As an emerging new-type crime, it is a very difficult problem for governmentsof various countries to tackle and control, and thus it has become one of themajor challenges facing police forces across the world. Joining hands incombating this newly developed fraud is the shared responsibility of the policeof all countries and also the unanimous consensus of the internationalcommunity.

Public security agencies across China are determined to earnestly enforce theLaw of Anti-telecom and Online Fraud through strengthened cooperation withtheir international counterparts and reinforced domestic efforts in fightingthe crime, so as to prevent it from further spreading, and to bringing thefraudsters at large to justice.