China's public security bureaux have built up a data bank recording information and data on about 1.25 billion of China's 1.3 billion people.

The Ministry of Public Security disclosed the swift progress of its "Gold Shield Program", which was launched in 2003. It has helped police uncover many criminal cases, said Liu Shuo, deputy director of the ministry's science and technology bureau, at Thursday's press conference.

Last year, 330,000 criminal cases, or 20 percent of the total were broken with the help of the data bank and the Internet, the official said.

Meanwhile, the police checked over 300 million passengers at customs and issued over 20 million ID cards of different kinds, with the help of its cyber-based entry and exit inspection system.

Source: Xinhua