China has been quite successful up to the present stage in arresting the momentum of the spread of crimes sabotaging the market economic order, said an official from the State Economic and Trade Commission Friday.
At a news briefing organized by the Fifth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress, Li Rongrong, minister in charge of the State Economic and Trade Commission, the country has zeroed in on such law-violating operations as "knocking-up vehicles", manufacturing of fake and shoddy disposable medical apparatuses and unlicensed "Internet bars".
Over the past year, Li said, the country uncovered and destroyed more than half a million dens for manufacturing and selling fake goods and investigated and punished 1.2 million cases, involving about 16.4 billion yuan. Besides, it shut 202 markets for knocking down rejected vehicles and destroyed 1,338 dens for knocking down and knocking up rejected vehicles, confiscated 158 million contraband publications, more than 4.2 million pirated software disks, uncovered tax evasion or dodging cases involving a sum of 8.65 billion yuan.
Besides, the minister said, major industries and areas strengthened safety control, concentrating efforts on controlling the manufacture and marketing of explosive materials, fireworks and firecrackers, road and waterway shipping traffic safety, safety operations of coal mines, storage and transportation of dangerous chemicals and fire prevention in public places.
In 2001, according to the minister, there were 140 major accidents each involving at least ten deaths. The figure was 18 percent less than in the previous year. The total death toll involved was 2,556, 27 percent less than in 2000.
(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2002)
