Crime is present in various forms in China. The Chinese government does not release unified exact statistics on crime rates and the rate of criminal offending due to such information being considered sensitive. Scarce official statistics released are the subject of much academic debate due to allegations of statistical fabrication, under-reporting and corruption.

History

A distinguishing feature of the Qin empire was its treatment of criminals: harsh but careful and fair. Succeeding dynasties moderated the law in various ways. In Ming times, commercialization and urbanization meant that scams abounded. Fences who disposed of stolen goods throve. The People's Republic of China was established in 1949 and, from 1949 to 1956, underwent the process of transferring the means of production to common ownership. During this time, the new government worked to decrease the influence of criminal gangs and reduce the prevalence of narcotics and gambling. Efforts to crack down on criminal activity by the government led to a decrease in crime. Between 1949 and 1956, larceny, arson, rape, murder, and robbery were major nonpolitical offenses. The majority of economic crimes were committed by business people who engaged in tax evasion, theft of public property, and bribery. Government officials also engaged in illegal economic activity, which included improperly taking public property and accepting bribes. Between 1957 and 1965, rural areas experienced little reported crime. Crime rates increased later. The year 1981 represented a peak in reported crime. This may have been correlated to the economic reform in the late 1970s, which allowed some elements of a market economy and gave rise to an increase in economic activity. Below is a comparison of reported cases of crime from 1977 to 1988 (excluding economic crimes): Police Beijing China 京 Hyundai

Crime by youth increased rapidly in the 1980s. Crime by youths consisted 60.2% of total crime in 1983, 63.3% in 1984, 71.4% in 1985, 72.4% in 1986, and 74.3% in 1987. The number of fleeing criminals increased over the years. Economic crimes have increased in recent years. From 1982 to 1988, the total number of economic crimes were 218,000. In 1989, a total of 76,758 cases of economic offenses were registered, which included bribery, smuggling, and

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

. The changes in economic policy had an influence on the characteristics of criminality. Since the Second Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, crime has increased and diversified.

Crime by type

Murder

In 2011, the reported murder rate in China was 1.0 per 100,000 people, with 13,410 murders. The murder rate in 2018 was 0.5. The reported murder rates have been criticized for

under-reporting Under-reporting usually refers to some issue, incident, statistic, etc., that individuals, responsible agencies, or news media have not reported, or have reported as less than the actual level or amount. Under-reporting of crimes, for example, makes ...

unsolved murders due to police salaries being based on the rate of solved cases.

Corruption

The PRC is a

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

ruled by the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

. Corruption exists in China, and the resulting costs to the economy are significant. Between 1978 and 2003, an estimated $50 billion was smuggled out of the country by corrupt officials.

Human trafficking

There are instances of human trafficking reported in China for various purposes. The majority of trafficking in PRC is internal, and this domestic trafficking is the most significant human trafficking problem in the country. Domestic and transnational criminal organizations carry out

sex trafficking in China Sex trafficking in China is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the People's Republic of China. China, the world's most populous country, has the second highest number of human trafficking victims in ...

. Women are lured through false promises of legitimate employment into commercial sexual exploitation in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, and Japan. Chinese men are smuggled to countries throughout the world for exploitative labor. Women and children are trafficked into PRC from

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

for forced labor and sexual slavery.

Drug trade

PRC is a major transshipment point for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle. Growing domestic drug abuse is a significant problem in PRC. Available estimates place the domestic spending on illegal drugs to be $17 billion.

Domestic violence

China has a high rate of domestic violence. In 2004, the

All-China Women’s Federation The All-China Women's Federation (ACWF; ) is a women's rights people's organization established in China on 24 March 1949. It was originally called the All-China Democratic Women's Foundation, and was renamed the All-China Women's Federation in ...

compiled survey results to show that thirty percent of the women in China experienced domestic violence within their homes. In 2015, the Chinese government enacted the Anti-domestic Violence Law.

Crime dynamics

Illegal guns

From January to July 1996, approximately 300,000 illegal small arms were seized from fourteen provinces of the country.

References

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