Chinese police arrest 15,000 for Internet crimes

Chinese police have arrested 15,000 people on suspicion of cybercrimes as the government tightens its control over the Internet, the Ministry of Public Security said Tuesday. Since taking over in 2013, President Xi Jinping has led an increasingly harsh crackdown on China’s Internet, which the Communist Party views with greater importance and acknowledges it needs to control, academics and researchers say. Police throughout the country have investigated more than 7,400 cases of possible cybercrimes, including hacking, online fraud and illegal sale of personal information, resulting in 15,000 arrests, the ministry said. It did not say when the arrests were made. Authorities launched a six-month special operation to clean the Internet in July, but some of the cases date back as far as December.

For the next step, the public security organs will continue to increase their investigation and crackdown on cyber crimes.

Ministry of Public Security statement

Beijing considers the Internet to be a virtual territory that must be ruled by laws and regulations. The ministry said the special operation has snared suspects who hacked into websites of companies, banks and government agencies. Some obtained personal information illegally, some altered web information or uploaded content related to online gambling, and some used the Internet to defraud others, it said. Beijing also prosecutes improper online speech, although the ministry’s announcement did not list cases involving that. China runs one of the world’s most sophisticated online censorship mechanisms, known as the Great Firewall. Censors keep a tight grip on what can be published, particularly material that could potentially undermine the ruling Communist Party.

Asia-Pacific