Cybersecurity

Public security bodies have stepped up efforts to tackle online crimes such as personal information infringement, gambling, fraud and hiring online trolls to hype or criticize events.

Police dealt with over 3,100 criminal cases involving infringement of personal information and arrested more than 9,700 suspects last year. The offenders usually targeted minors and the elderly and sometimes traded or used the stolen information on the dark web.

Police in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, arrested 26 people last year who cracked facial recognition security and sold the victims' information to criminal gangs.

Last year, about 256,000 telecom and internet fraud cases were solved and 263,000 suspects arrested in police operations. More than 140 million fraudulent phone calls and 870 million text messages were intercepted, and 316,000 fraudulent websites blocked, preventing estimated economic losses of 120 billion yuan, the ministry said.

Drug control

The overall drug control situation in China has steadily improved in recent years, the ministry said.

Public security bodies solved about 49,000 drug-related crimes, arrested more than 63,000 suspects and seized 43.7 tons of drugs nationwide in the first three quarters of last year, it said.

Authorities also conducted a series of anti-drug publicity and education activities and established a digital platform to educate young people on drug-prevention education, with over 96 million students from 228,000 schools registered on the platform.

They have also improved the drug rehabilitation model and strengthened services and management for drug users. By the end of 2019, more than 2.5 million drug users had not relapsed after three years of abstinence.

The number of drug users decreased by 8.4 percent from 2015, showing a downward trend for two consecutive years, the ministry said.