Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild

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110 Overseas ，The last decade has witnessed the rapid spread of telecom and online fraud globally, which seriously infringes on people's legitimate rights and interests, becoming a prominent crime and a public hazard. To address this problem, the Chinese police have been committed to intensifying their efforts in the combat against and control of such crimes, and strengthening international law enforcement cooperation, which has enabled them to accumulate successful experience, build up best practices and set examples for their counterparts around the world.

Upholding the people-centered principle, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have attached great importance to countering telecom and online fraud. Equal importance has been given to both combat and control. An efficient multi-department collaborative working mechanism has been established, and the Anti-telecom and Online Fraud Law has been formulated and enacted, which provides a strong legal foundation. Targeting the characteristics of such crimes, the Chinese police have conducted specialized study and research, set up specialized task forces, initiated specialized investigation against major cases and utilized specialized techniques.

The Chinese police have synchronized their efforts both internally and externally, and launched a series of campaigns and operations, effectively curbing the high momentum of these crimes, retrieving a large number of economic losses, and winning wide recognition from the public and the international community. During their international law enforcement engagements, the Chinese police frequently received requests from their counterparts to share their experience and effective practices in this field.

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

The Chinese police, through international law enforcement cooperation, have joined hands with their international counterparts to carry out operations and achieved significant results. Operation Great Wall, jointly launched with the Spanish police in 2019, has become a successful example of transnational law enforcement cooperation.

From March to June this year, China, together with 76 INTERPOL member states, jointly participated in the anti-fraud Operation First Light initiated by INTERPOL, which destroyed 1,770 fraud dens in as many countries, arrested over 2,000 suspects and intercepted more than US$50 million in illicit funds. It was also found that some Chinese citizens were involved in fraud activities abroad, and the majority of them were tempted by the promise of high payments, cheated and coerced into being smuggled abroad, and some of them were kidnapped and detained illegally, and a few of them were even beaten and abused to death in the criminal dens.

The Chinese police, together with relevant departments, have actively carried out rescue and education, and encouraged them to return home through international law enforcement cooperation, and made every effort to provide assistance and employment. The immigration authorities, in accordance with the provisions of the Exit and Entry Administration Law, have taken necessary measures such as restricting the exit of persons engaged in telecom and online fraud.

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

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

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