Beijing's courts at various levels have dealt with 10,719 criminal cases in the past two years' "strike hard" campaign, delivering sentences to 14,412 criminals found guilty of arson, bombing, murder or robbery. 

The information was released Friday at a conference summing up the "strike hard" campaign.

After studying the criminal cases, the courts provided advice on how to improve public security. In 2001 alone, the courts issued 48 advice letters to some institutions which might be proneto crimes.

As a result, Beijing witnessed better public security in the anti-crime campaign. In 2002, serious crime rates dwindled, with the premeditated murder rate dropping 5.6 percent from 2001 and robbery plummeting 9.7 percent.

According a survey conducted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, 61.8 percent of Beijing residents graded the public security as "good", up 16.7 percent from the previous year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2003)