Customs officials across China launched a series of crackdowns against smuggling in 2002, reducing smuggling offences from the previous year, the General Administration of Customs said Wednesday.
China's customs offices investigated 9,818 smuggling cases last year, involving a total of 5.3 billion yuan (US$639 million), and with 3,491 smugglers punished, the department said.
Large-scale smuggling had been basically checked, helping restore normal orders for the nation's imports and exports, and resulting in an increase in foreign trade and tariffs, Customs said.
Last year, the five-month campaign was held to deal with three kinds of tariff evasion - price cheating, cheating in processing exports, and clearance through select customs. Other crackdowns against the smuggling of cars, drugs and cultural items were also enforced.
(People's Daily January 9, 2003)
