Chinese authorities reported a sharp rise in various crimes in 2024, with telecom and cyber fraud leading the surge.
More than 67,000 individuals were charged over the past year as part of a crackdown on telecom and cyber fraud, representing a 58.5 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023, according to the country’s prosecutors.
In the first 11 months of 2024, prosecutors also charged 9,867 individuals with organized crime and indicted 1,136 individuals for offenses involving the abduction and trafficking of women and children.
Over 121,000 people faced charges for disrupting the “socialist market economy,” an 18.7 percent rise from the same period in 2023. Among these cases, approximately 22,000 involved financial fraud or violations of financial management regulations.
Efforts to combat corruption intensified, with supervision commissions referring to over 28,000 individuals suspected of duty-related crimes, a 37.9 percent increase year-on-year. Of those, 22,000 were formally indicted.
Procuratorates nationwide also charged 2,772 individuals with offering bribes, a 20.2 percent increase from 2023, highlighting the authorities' commitment to punishing both the giving and receiving of bribes.
During the same period, prosecutors handled 3,856 public interest litigation cases related to the protection of cultural relics and heritage, a 44 percent rise from the previous year. They also indicted 1,619 individuals for crimes such as illegal excavation, theft, scalping, and smuggling of cultural artifacts.
