A senior official with the Ministry of Public Security Friday urged citizens to be more vigilant in protecting themselves against criminals in the weeks leading to the Spring Festival.

"Experience shows there are increases in robberies during the period. People, especially migrant workers rushing home for the festival with yearly earnings in pocket, should really watch out," said Meng Hongwei, assistant to the minister of public security.

"The ministry is warning all criminals, or those contemplating a crime, that what awaits them is severe punishment."

Statistics from the ministry indicate that public security authorities from across the country investigated 320,000 theft cases last November. That's an increase of 9.9 per cent over the same month in 2002.

According to Meng, the ministry has already stepped up its efforts to investigate and crack down on crimes to improve public security.

For example, Chinese public security authorities solved as many as 209,000 theft cases in November, an increase of 41.8 per cent more over October figures.

Local public security officials have also cracked down on serious crimes at a "satisfactory" speed, said Meng. One such case was the robbery of an American Chinese at a hotel in Suzhou, in East China's Jiangsu Province, on December 3. It took local police a little more than one hour to catch the three suspects.

Meng believes the situation of public security has "fairly" improved across the country due to a "more capable'' police force.

The number of more serious crimes filed by public security authorities, such as arson, rape, homicide and robbery,has declined. For instance, rape cases were down 9.8 per cent and homicides 7.7 per cent, according to Meng.

Meanwhile, he said, 617,000 road accidents occurred killing 95,000 people from January to November last year and caused a direct economic loss of 3.1 billion yuan (US$374.4 million). These figures are also lower than they were in 2002. For instance, road accident were down 13.9 per cent..

The ministry's efforts to improve public security will carry on, said Meng. He also said crime figures would be made more transparent.

"From this year on, the ministry and provincial public security authorities will inform the public on major crime cases at least once a month," he said.

"As for public security authorities in municipalities directly under the central government, provincial capitals and other Chinese regions at a comparable level, they should do it at least twice a month."

Meng believes the new mechanism will push local police authorities to strive for greater efficiency.

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