Big drop in number of violent crime suspects

Adoption of market economy has led to rise in other types of crime over 20 years

The number of people charged with serious violent crimes, including homicide, rape, kidnapping, arson and explosion, decreased by 63 percent between 1999 and 2019, bringing a real sense of gain, security and happiness to the people, the head of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said.

The number of people prosecuted for violent crimes fell to 60,654 last year, from 162,000 in 1999, with the annual decline averaging 4.8 percent, SPP Procurator-General Zhang Jun told China Daily.

Zhang said social governance has entered a new stage over the past 20 years.

Since China adopted the market economy with the deepening of reform and opening-up, manpower has grown and social management has expanded. This has led to a significant reduction in violent crime and a dramatic increase in other crimes involving economic development and social management.

Figures provided by the SPP showed that the number of crimes related to disturbing market order last year was 19.4 times higher than in 1999, with the increase in crimes related to the production and sale of fake or inferior products even higher, up 34.6 times. The number of crimes related to intellectual property rights infringement was 56.6 times higher.

Zhang said that with the onset of economic development, new legislation has been gradually introduced, which has increased the number of new types of crimes, such as reckless and drunken driving as more Chinese families began to buy cars.

Prosecuting departments charged 322,000 people with reckless driving last year and 249,000 people with theft, according to the SPP.

"However, there are still many social conflicts at some time, in some places or in some fields," Zhang said.