Chinese Ministry of Public Security spokesperson Zhang Ming on January 8, 2026 Photo: courtesy of Chinese Ministry of Public Security

The total number of criminal cases registered by public security organs nationwide in 2025 decreased by 12.8 percent year-on-year, reaching a new low in this century, while the number of public order cases decreased by 3.5 percent year-on-year, Global Times learned from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security on Thursday. 

Among them, serious violent crimes, human trafficking, and traditional theft, robbery, and fraud cases - decreased by 4.7 percent, 40.7 percent, and 21.2 percent respectively year-on-year.

In 2025, the number of major road traffic accidents involving three or more deaths nationwide decreased by 11 percent year-on-year, with no particularly major catastrophic road traffic accidents occurring — the first time since statistical records began in 1990 that zero catastrophic road traffic accidents were recorded throughout the year, according to the ministry. 

Particularly major catastrophic road traffic accidents refer to those causing 30 or more deaths, or 100 or more serious injuries, or direct economic losses of 100 million yuan or more, according to government information.

And on Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security also revealed that, in 2025, a total of 210 police officers and 142 auxiliary police officers from public security organs nationwide sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. Two were awarded, or posthumously awarded, the title of National First-Class Heroic Model in the Public Security System, and 40 were awarded Second-Class Heroic Model. With their blood and lives, they built an impregnable wall to defend national security and the peace of the people,  according to the ministry. 

Global Times