China sees 27% surge in telecom and online fraud cases, new judiciary reports reveal
The reports also disclosed the number of serious violent crimes and some 30,000 cases of corruption-related offences.
Ying Yong, Procurator-General of China's Supreme People's Procuratorate, presents the prosecutorial work report at the National People's Congress on Mar 8, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Hu Chushi)
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BEIJING: Chinese courts handled some 40,000 cases of telecom and online fraud last year, a 26.7 per cent spike from 2023 as the country ramped up efforts to stamp out criminal scam operations operating out of Myanmar.
Legal prosecution and judicial figures were released by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), China’s top prosecutorial body, and the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) as part of the ongoing National People’s Congress (NPC) meetings in Beijing.
The SPC said the 40,000 telecom fraud cases last year involved 82,000 defendants.
The SPP reported charging 78,000 individuals with telecom fraud, marking a significant increase of 53.9 per cent from the year before.
The reports come days after hundreds of Chinese nationals freed from scam centres in Myanmar, were flown home through Thailand as part of ongoing cross-border efforts to repatriate workers.
The SPP report highlighted the case of 39 members of a Myanmar-based criminal syndicate known as “the Ming family”, who were prosecuted along with affiliated criminal groups by authorities in the eastern Zhejiang province.
The group was reportedly involved in gambling and fraud-related transactions exceeding 10 billion yuan (US$1.37 billion) that resulted in the deaths of 14 Chinese nationals and injuries to six others, according to state outlet CCTV News.
The first trials for 23 defendants began last month, according to local news reports.
SAFEGUARDING SOCIAL STABILITY
China's courts also strengthened punishment against those convicted of crimes disrupting social order.
In its report, the SPC said 2024 saw 49,000 cases of serious violent crimes involving 58,000 individuals, which also included homicide cases. This a 5.8 per cent decrease as compared to the previous year.
It referenced recent high-profile attacks such as the one carried out in the southern city of Zhuhai and eastern Jiangsu province - 62-year-old Fan Weiqiu, who killed 35 people by deliberately driving his car into crowds outside a Zhuhai sports stadium in November.
Another involved 21-year-old Xu Jiajin, who carried out a knife attack at a vocational school in Yixing, Jiangsu that same month, killing eight people and wounding 17 others.
Both men were sentenced to death and executed - sending a clear and powerful deterrent message against crime and underscoring the protection of public safety, SPC said, adding that the justice system had acted swiftly and decisively in meting out harsh penalties to those who challenged the law and moral boundaries.
COMBATING CORRUPTION
China's ongoing crackdown on corruption continues, with cases being a key focus in both bodies’ annual reports.
Some 30,000 cases of embezzlement, bribery and other corruption-related offences, involving 33,000 individuals, were concluded in 2024, SPC said, marking a 22.3 per cent increase from 2023.
The law “took its course” in prosecuting 48 former Chinese central government officials, including former Guizhou party chief Sun Zhigang, who was sentenced to death last October for taking bribes of up to more than 813 million yuan ($113.9 million) and committing bribery.
Li Jianping, a former official from Inner Mongolia, convicted of embezzling over 3 billion yuan in one of the country’s largest-ever corruption cases, was executed in December.
Also mentioned in SPC’s report were high-profile corruption cases in China’s football sector, and 2,473 cases of bribery involving 2,873 individuals - an 18.6 per cent increase from 2023.
The SPP report highlighted government-wide cooperation in the fight against corruption as well as progress in the past year: 27,000 cases of official misconduct were transferred from various supervisory commissions which resulted in 24,000 prosecutions - an increase of 37.8 per cent and 34.9 per cent from the previous year, respectively.
Thirty-four provincial and ministerial-level officials were among those prosecuted, including Liu Liange, former Bank of China chairman who was detained in March 2023 and expelled from the Communist Party over bribery and illegal loan issuance. He was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.
