Ordinary Chinese felt "more secure", as the number of criminal cases declined in China last year, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security said in Beijing Thursday.

"A total of 4.65 million criminal cases were filed across the country in 2005, down by 1.5 percent year-on-year. The figure included 21,000 cases of homicide, a drop of 15.9 percent compared with the figure a year ago," the ministry said.

The ministry's spokesman Wu Heping quoted an earlier opinion poll released by the National Bureau of Statistics as saying that 91.9 percent of respondents feel "safe or generally safe."

In 2005, there were fewer cases of vicious crimes such as arson and explosion, with 7,680 arson cases and 980 explosion cases being recorded, down by 23.9 percent and 13.7 percent respectively year-on-year, according to ministry statistics.

There were 236,000 infringements of personal democratic rights, almost equal the 2004 figure, 34,000 rape cases, down by 6.8 percent, and 2,884 cases of trafficking in women and children, down by 13.7 percent, the ministry said.

In 2005, intellectual property rights infringements reached 1,799, up 51.9 percent, the highest year-on-year increase, the ministry said.

Source: Xinhua