MPS Press Conference Stresses Success in Handling Homicide Cases, Provides No Information on Protest Trends

Ministry of Public Security (MPS) spokesman Wu Heping and deputy director of the MPS's criminal investigation bureau Yu Xinmin emphasized MPS successes in breaking homicide cases, but provided no information as to trends regarding citizen protest activities, at a February 6, 2007 State Council Information Office press conference discussing general public order trends for 2006.  A transcript of the event is available on the Chinese government's website.

The MPS officials provided numerous statistics related to law enforcement work in 2006.  They noted that the MPS handled roughly 4.65 million criminal cases in 2006, roughly the same for the last three years.  They also strongly emphasized MPS successes in solving homicide cases, claiming a national average 91.4% in solving eight types of these cases.

The MPS officials did not provide any statistics related to citizen protests in China.  In 2005, Zhou Yongkang, minister in charge of the public security bureau, noted that mass incidents (群体性事件） had risen to 74,000 in 2004, up from 10,000 in 1994, according to media sources cited on the website of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).  MPS authorities announced  in 2006 that the total number of crimes of "disturbing public order" for 2005 had risen by 6.6 percent over 2004, to 87,000, according to media sources cited on the CECC website.  The use of different terms (and the absence of corresponding information for 2006), renders direct comparisons impossible.  For further discussion on this point, see the EastSouthWestNorth blog.