Photo: VCG

China has launched a one-year nationwide campaign starting from July to deepen its crackdown on organized crime based on new trends and characteristics, and focusing on those involved in illegal resource control and local bullies, as well as those cyber gang crimes, CCTV News reported on Sunday. 

The special campaign will focus on “village bullies,” “township bullies,” “sand bullies,” “mining bullies,” “street bullies,” and “market bullies.” It will also involve strict legal actions against criminal gangs involved in drug production and trafficking, illegal gambling operations, prostitution-related crimes, as well as crimes committed through collusion between domestic and overseas criminal forces. 

The campaign will also take strict measures against criminal gangs that manipulate or control minors to commit illegal acts and crimes, and those that infringe upon the rights and interests of minors.

The campaign will also target organized crimes conducted through online platforms and “soft violence” tactics, including online blackmail, illegal lending, extortion, forced consumption, and harassment-based crimes.

China reported record-low crime levels in 2025, with criminal cases down 12.8 percent and homicides down 8.7 percent year on year. Public satisfaction with the anti-organized crime campaign reached 94.55 percent, while the national public security satisfaction rate stood at 98.23 percent, staying above 98 percent for six consecutive years, per official data. 

Despite significant progress in the regularized anti-organized crime campaign, the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee said such crimes remain persistent and complex, with some groups adopting more covert methods, which requires continued and stronger efforts to combat them. 

With the rapid development of information technology, organized crime is increasingly merging with cybercrime, with criminal groups shifting from offline to online, overt to covert, violent to "soft violence," and expanding into non-traditional sectors and emerging industries. 

The authorities have vowed to continue advancing the campaign against organized crime alongside efforts to root out its “protective umbrellas” and dismantle the protective networks behind it. A faster mechanism will be established to timely investigate corruption, official protection, and collusive networks linked to organized crime. Every such case uncovered will be investigated and dealt with. Greater supervisory efforts will also be devoted to major cases involving long-term ties between organized crime and corruption. 

Global Times