China Cracks Down on Telecom and Online Fraud with Record-Breaking Success
Combating Fraud: A Model for International Cooperation
China has made significant strides in combating telecom and online fraud, achieving record-breaking results in recent years. The country’s comprehensive approach to tackling the issue has been hailed as a model for international cooperation.
Strengthening Law Enforcement Capabilities
The Chinese government has been actively advancing the development of specialized laboratories, leveraging criminal science and technology support to comprehensively improve law enforcement agencies’ analysis and evidence collection capabilities related to capital flow, information flow, and network flow.
- Established an inter-ministerial joint meeting system led by 25 departments and entities to crack down on new-type violations of laws and crimes related to telecommunications networks
- Governments at the provincial, municipal, and county levels have set up their own joint meeting mechanisms to create a society-wide anti-fraud work pattern
Whole-Police-Force Anti-Fraud Mechanism
A whole-police-force anti-fraud working mechanism has been established by public security organs, with three kinds of effective synergy formed:
- Vertical synergy: efficient linkage at various levels
- Regional synergy: full collaboration across the country
- Horizontal synergy: close cooperation among various types of police forces
Industry and Financial Sector Cooperation
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has arranged the information and communication industry to set up anti-fraud special work teams at the ministerial, provincial, and enterprise levels. The ministry has also developed an anti-fraud responsibility list for telecommunications enterprises and Internet enterprises.
- Tightened regulation in the financial industry with the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission establishing an anti-fraud prevention and control system for the payment system
- Strengthened real-name account system and improved monitoring mechanism for fraud risks
Publicity and Prevention Efforts
Publicity campaigns have been launched across society, with various departments and entities organizing efforts to combat telecom and online fraud. The National Anti-Fraud Center official government accounts have posted 8,460 videos with a total of 4.72 billion views in 2021.
International Cooperation
China has been actively advancing international law enforcement cooperation, conducting joint operations with countries such as Cambodia, the Philippines, and Spain.
- Operation Great Wall between Chinese police and Spanish police successfully smashed 13 telecom and online fraud criminal groups, arrested 237 suspects, and extradited 225 suspects to China in 2016
- Participated in several international anti-fraud operations, including Operation First Light with INTERPOL, which smashed 1,770 fraud hideouts in multiple countries, arrested over 2,000 suspects, and intercepted over $50 million of illegal funds
Conclusion
The Chinese government’s comprehensive approach to combating telecom and online fraud has yielded impressive results, making it a model for international cooperation. China is willing to share its practices and experience with other countries to jointly solve the problem of transnational telecom and online fraud and build a universally secure human community with a shared future.