China has seen a yearly average sum of over 80 billion yuan (US$9.67 billion) involved in economic crimes in recent years, which account for about 1 percent of China's gross domestic product (GDP), reported Friday's China Youth Daily.  

The money was more than three times that involved in other crimes, the report said.

China filed 52,000 economic crimes for investigation in 1998 and 85,000 cases in 2001, an increase of about 20 percent year-on-year.

As many as 71,000 economic crimes were recorded in the previous year, according to the report.

Fields involved in economic crimes have been enlarged from finance, taxation, business and trade to employment, sports and education.

Meanwhile, economic crimes have spread to the underdeveloped regions in middle and western China from developed eastern coastal regions, and to rural areas from the cities.

More and more lawbreakers use modern hi-tech methods and the Internet to conduct their racketeering activities, the report said.

Many political and public figures have been involved in the economic crimes, according to the report.

An increasing number of crimes involve lawbreakers from overseas, which also characterizes China's economic crimes, it said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2003)