China's police authorities disposed more than 400,000 economic crimes over the past seven years, arresting about 370,000 criminal suspects and recovering 100 billion yuan.

The figures were released at an ongoing national symposium on economic crime.

Zheng Shaodong, assistant Minister of Public Security, said at the symposium that world economic integration had led to a dramatic rise in the number of multinational economic crimes.

"China has seen an increasing number of cross-border economic crimes in recent years, especially in fields such as intellectual property infringement and money laundering," said Zheng.

Economic crimes like pyramid selling and fund-raising frauds affect large numbers of people in China.

A company in Northeast China raised 3 billion yuan (725 million U.S. dollars) from gullible members of the public by promising big profits from a project to breed ants.

Donghua Ecological Breeding Co. Ltd., in Liaoning Province, offered returns of 35 percent to 60 percent on investment in the bogus project.

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) released details of the case in November as an example of how fraudsters were getting more devious and imaginative in their schemes.

Zheng said China's economic criminals are wily customers who are difficult to track down.

Zheng confessed that police units do not have sufficient resources to deal with the mounting number of economic crimes. He said that police investigative tools had to be improved.

"Many economic crimes are either not detected or unable to be investigated, and this represents a threat to social harmony," he said.

Source: Xinhua