Documents produced in the Shanwei Intermediate People's Court showed that the seven men produced more than 600 million yuan (US$72 million) in counterfeit renminbi (China's currency) between May 1995 and June 1999 in Lufeng and Puning in Guangdong Province.

The court stated that the criminals' activities violated China's Criminal Law and had done great harm to local economic stability, and sentenced them to death last September.

Zhuo Zhengyuan, the leading culprit in the case, was involved in the printing of 615 million yuan (US$74 million) over a four-year period.

Zhuo Lianmao was involved in the printing of 295 million yuan (US$35 million) during the period; Zhang Zetang, 271 million yuan (US$32 million); Zhou Jiadong, 338 million yuan (US$40 million), Zhang Linqi, 24 million yuan (US$2.9 million); Wen Zhiwu, 156 million yuan (US$18 million) and Zhang Xitao, 139 million yuan (US$16 million).

Another five criminals involved in the case were sentenced to life imprisonment or more than ten years. Most of the criminals were also involved in storing or transporting the counterfeit bills.

The seven criminals given death sentences appealed the case in Guangdong High People's Court last year, requesting lighter sentences.

The court upheld the original sentences on December 20 last year, and the Supreme People's Court approved the death sentences on February 6.

The source in China's Supreme People's Court recently pointed out that counterfeiting is extremely harmful to the economic and social development of the state and that it is one of the crimes that the police and courts at all levels should pay much attention to.

In terms of the quantity of counterfeit money and the number of criminals involved, the Shanwei case is the largest such case since the founding of the People's Republic of China, according to the source.

(China Daily 02/09/2001)