GUANGZHOU - Most of the police chiefs at various levels in Dongguan of South China's Guangdong province have made their mobile phone numbers public in a bid to solicit tip-offs in the city's high-profile crackdown on prostitution, gambling and drug-related crimes.

Lu Weiqi, deputy chief of Dongguan public security bureau, received so many text messages that his phone number was suspended by telecommunications authorities, according to the local Yangcheng Evening News.

In China, if a phone receives or forwards thousands of text messages, authorities suspend the number due to suspicion that the number is being used for spam or illegal purposes.

Lu made his mobile phone number public on March 23, less than a month after he assumed leadership of the crackdown on the three types of crimes.

In the following two months, he received 8,467 text messages. Of those, 4,358 were considered useful to police investigations. About 66 percent of the messages pointed to prostitution and gambling, with the rest about public security problems, Lu said.

Lu forwarded the texts to his colleagues, so that they could investigate the tips.

On the suspension of his number, Lu said: "It's good, because it indicates the mobile phone operator has also become a part of our work in fighting prostitution, gambling and drug-related crimes."

Text messages from the public, for example, led to the smashing of three gambling dens in Houjie town last week. It also led to the removal of three chiefs at a local police office and three village security chiefs for being involved in the crimes.

Renowned for its manufacturing strength as a "world processing factory," Dongguan is also known to many for its "sauna services," which implies the prostitution business.

City authorities have stepped up its efforts in the crackdown on prostitution, gambling and drug-related crimes since early this year. Top officials at the township and street level are evaluated based on their performance in this work.

Each village or community is under the responsibility of a team of government officials, with supervising teams set up at every township government.

If local authorities make insufficient efforts in cracking these three types of crime, their names and departments will be reprimanded through public notices, media reports and warnings, said Liu Zhigeng, Party secretary of Dongguan.

In the worst cases, the local chief will be removed from his post, Liu said.

In three days since a second campaign was launched on May 24, authorities have dispatched 20,831 people and checked 32,755 venues, including hair salons, sauna and massage parlors, karaoke boxes and rented housing units dominated by non-permanent residents.

They cracked 24 criminal cases and 268 public security cases, catching 861 people suspected of involvement in prostitution, gambling and drug-related cases. They also confiscated 991 slot machines.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/31/2010 page5)