China Steps Up Anti-Smuggling Drive (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

                               Dow Jones Newswires -- July 15, 1998
                   China Govt Steps Up Anti-Smuggling
                   Efforts - Reports

                   Dow Jones Newswires

                   BEIJING -- The Chinese government will establish a
special police force
                   to combat smuggling and will use fines and confiscated
goods to help fund
                   a national crackdown, state media reported Thursday. 

                   Premier Zhu Rongji ordered all Communist Party and
government offices,
                   law enforcement agencies and judiciary departments to
sever relations with
                   affiliated companies and investigate possible smuggling
activities, according
                   to the China Daily. 

                   Smuggling of oil products, automobiles and cigarettes
through China's
                   coastal cities has become rife and often involves tacit
cooperation from
                   Chinese officials. 

                   An editorial in the People's Daily Thursday said that
smuggling resulted in
                   lost tax revenue, violated import-export management
policies, corrupted
                   officials and undermined social morals. 

                   "The general public must fully realize that the
anti-smuggling drive is not
                   only a major economic struggle, but also a harsh
political struggle which
                   will have a great bearing on the reform, opening up and
modernization
                   drive," the editorial warns. 

                   Under new anti-smuggling measures, all fines and
proceeds from
                   confiscated goods will go to the central government,
which will be used to
                   support national and provincial crackdowns on bringing
goods into the
                   country illegally. A new national police force -
supervised by customs and
                   public security - will conduct investigations, make
arrests and hold
                   preliminary hearings, the China Daily reported. 

                   There are no national figures for the value of smuggled
goods brought into
                   China, or taken out. But provincial authorities do
publicize high-profile
                   seizures. 

                   In a separate report Thursday, customs officials in the
northern port of
                   Qingdao in Shandong province estimated the total value
of smuggled
                   goods, seized and unseized, to have increased 4.5 times
in the first half
                   over a year earlier, according to the China Daily. 

                   So far, Shandong authorities said they had closed 57
smuggling cases
                   valued at 159 million yuan (CNY) ($1=CNY8.2798). 

                   The newspaper said electronics, gold, cigarettes,
chemicals, automobiles,
                   steel and computers were brought into China while
cotton and foreign
                   currency were smuggled out. 

                   Qingdao customs captured 50,0000 watches in May while
in Jinan, also a
                   city in Shandong, a company was caught last month
exporting fake
                   chemical fertilizers made of waste water. 

                   In January, Jinan customs grabbed 128 kilograms of gold
smuggled from
                   Hong Kong. The seizure was valued at CNY11.26 million
and was said to
                   be China's biggest gold smuggling case since the
communists took power
                   in 1949.
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