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SCMP Reporter

SERIOUS crime in China jumped 60 per cent last year, the country's top prosecutor will tell the National People's Congress (NPC) tomorrow.

  The bad news is to be delivered by the Supreme People's Procurator, Zhang Siqing, at the third plenary session of the Eighth NPC in a report which paints a picture of China as unsafe and violent.

  Serious crimes - murder, rape, bombing, drug-dealing and those involving triads - rose 61.9 per cent last year, while the number of suspects arrested and tried soared 68.8 per cent to 232,216.

  According to Mr Zhang's report, law and order was so poor that the country saw an increase in all categories of crime. In 1994, a total of 688,771 suspects were taken into custody for criminal offences, up 13.3 per cent over the previous year.

  Corruption and bribery cases investigated by the procuratorate - which is similar in function to an attorney-general's office in the United States - climbed 18 per cent last year to reach 36,417.

  A total of 3,098 senior party and government cadres, 1,468 law-enforcers, 2,539 judiciary officials and 3,791 economic officials have been investigated for graft.

  Mr Zhang will also tell delegates that more than one per cent of the 28,626 major corruption cases investigated last year involved over one million yuan (about HK$917,000).

  However, he will not name any 'big tigers'. And unlike last year, he does not mention the case of Australian-Chinese businessman James Peng Jiandong, who he described in his 1994 report as a criminal who had embezzled 6.77 million yuan of public money.

  Peng, whose case is still being investigated by the procuratorate in Shenzhen, has been detained for more than one year.

  Despite the soaring crime rate, Mr Zhang fails to indicate anywhere in his 25-page report whether the situation has led to problems such as over-crowding of prisons.

  However, he does call for more funds for the procuratorate to upgrade its facilities to fight crime. He also says that criminals in China have become more 'greedy' and are willing to take greater risks.

  'Many of these corruption cases involved millions of yuan, or even tens of millions of yuan. Although the judiciary has stepped up its crackdown on these economic criminals, many people are prepared to take the risk,' his report says.

  He links the rise in crime with economic reforms, saying the country's transition to a market system has provided criminals with greater opportunities.

  'Through bribery many find their 'protecting shields', and establish connections in the government,' he says.

  Mr Zhang will also remind delegates in his report that 'enemy forces' are still trying to destabilise the country.

  Meanwhile, Supreme People's Court President Ren Jianxin will tell delegates tomorrow that China's courts were overloaded with cases last year.

  Economic and corruption cases jumped 69.8 per cent and bankruptcy cases soared by 141.8 per cent.

  But many of those convicted last year received harsher sentences. Of the 276,809 criminals who were convicted of crimes ranging from threatening state security to public order offences, 60.5 per cent received jail terms of at least five years.

  The top judge also says in his report that Chinese courts last year ruled on 2,491 suspects in connection with the publication and manufacture of pornographic material.



Officials losing law-and-order battle