China Increases Efforts To Stop Smuggling 　　China dealt with 4,305 cases of smuggling, with goods valued at 13.48 billion yuan, from July to December last year, according to Liu Jing, deputy director-general of the General Administration of Customs. 　　After a major meeting in July to discuss smuggling, Chinese customs, industry and commerce, and public security departments joined hands to increase the anti-smuggling effort, Liu said in a report on the work at a public lecture on February 11. 　　According to Liu, judicial departments arrested 614 people suspected of smuggling, 177 of whom were subject to penalties, from July to December. 　　This helped offset the effects of the Asian financial crisis and protect normal production and stimulated the domestic markets. He said that the country's monthly tax revenues increased by a large margin after July. In 1998, total tax revenues at the State treasury reached 87.9 billion yuan, a 3 percent increase from the previous year. 　　He said that there will be even tougher measures this year, especially in the Zhujiang valley and Guangxi in south China, where smuggling is still a very serious problem. 　　The public lecture was sponsored by the CPC Central Committee Publicity Department and several other departments. HomeNews 1999-02-12 Page4 Full Story in Chinese