Chinese police crackdown on food crimes

Chinese police uncovered 4,500 food safety-related crimes and detained 8,500 suspects between January and May, the Ministry of Public Security announced on Thursday.

During this period, police destroyed 3,800 illegal factories and workshops for manufacturing substandard, expired and counterfeit food and drugs, the ministry said.

"Food safety is a major issue concerning people's livelihoods and concerns the physical health and safety of 1.3 billion people across the country," said Lyu Wuqin, director of the food and drug crime investigation bureau of the ministry.

"We will severely punish the suspects involved with food and drug-related crimes to guarantee people's right of living," he said.

According to the ministry, in the past five months police used big data to research cases and collect valuable clues.

In addition, they worked closely with other departments to conduct investigations into the food processing plants, restaurants and snack shops to discover clues in time, before conducting joint actions to detain suspects.

In May police in Chongqing smashed a major criminal ring for producing fake food valued at 20 million yuan ($2.9 million), said Zhou Wei, a police officer at Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Police arrested 40 suspects and destroyed 10 workshops. They also confiscated 30,000 boxes of counterfeit healthcare products, five sets of equipment and other criminal documents, he said.

Throughout the investigation, police found suspects used fake identities to claim they were descendants of a famous doctor of Chinese traditional medicine. They also put photos of their fake medical licenses online and in clinics for others to search on WeChat.

They established workshops in office buildings in Chongqing and conducted telephone consultations for the patients and promoted their fake healthcare products to seek high profits.

While addressing a meeting of the Ministry of Public Security in May, President Xi Jinping said police should perform their duty and crack down on crimes that affect the public's safety, including food-and drug-related crimes.

In a response, the Food and Drug Related Crime Investigation Bureau was officially established in May.

Authorities recently issued a statement, which called for "a more serious penalty for such crimes if the circumstances are serious, such as affecting numbers of victims or resulting in people's deaths."

A key part of the new bureau's work is to attack such crimes and compile evidence for prosecutions involving fake food and drug products, according to the ministry.

"We will eliminate potential food safety hazards through conducting effective campaigns, to increase people's happiness and security," Lyu said.

He said police will cooperate with other departments to pay more attention to meat products, edible agricultural products and counterfeit wines in places like shopping malls and supermarkets, as well as rural fairs and schools.