Crackdown on Organized Crime · Full chronicle and history

On September 27, a lawyer in Beijing posted a video stating that since 2026, as the 'sweeping away black and evil' operations have continued, the number of people detained in detention centers has increased, lawyer meeting rooms are full, and the demand for lawyer meetings has risen significantly recently.

The Fucheng District government in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, issued an anti-gang and anti-evil notice, explicitly defining malicious wage-demanding, forging evidence, surrounding construction sites, and coercing transactions as "labor porcelain-smashing" (extortion), and announced a severe crackdown.

A concentrated crackdown operation against gang and organized crime was carried out in Zhejiang Province, dismantling 234 gangs involved in such activities and arresting 2,901 people, while also tracing back the financial flows of the venues involved in the cases.

On September 1, 2026, a WeChat official account published an article suggesting legislation to include workers' acts of reporting enterprises to overseas compliance agencies—labeled as 'reporting to foreigners'—within the scope of anti-organized crime and anti-gang campaigns, triggering strong backlash from a large number of netizens.

Xinhua News Agency released early on August 6 an infographic themed on "quasi-steady and ruthless," announcing a deepening of the special campaign to sweep away black and eliminate evil, which was accused of paving the way for a political purge.

The WeChat public account of the CCP's Political and Legal Affairs Commission posted an article claiming that black and evil crimes are "stubborn, recurrent and complex," continuing to build momentum for deepening the special campaign to sweep away black and eliminate evil.

Chongqing moved quickly, convening a citywide deployment meeting on August 2, calling for cracking down on protective umbrellas and dismantling networks, and carrying out official purges in coordination with the nationwide special campaign.

On August 2, CCTV.com reported in a Q&A format that a responsible official of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission addressed the reasons for deepening the special anti-gang and anti-evil campaign and its key tasks, with opinion-based extortion and internet water armies listed as key targets of the crackdown.

Chen Wenqing, Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, presided over a national video conference on the campaign to combat organized crime and root out local mafia, announcing the relaunch of the relevant special campaign for a period of approximately one year.

Xinhua News Agency reported that Chen Wenqing announced at the national conference on the special campaign against organized crime and evil forces that the campaign would be deepened, and called for striking the "protective umbrellas and networks of connections" of criminal elements.

On July 31, Chinese authorities announced a one-year special campaign to deepen the crackdown on organized crime, vowing to remove the malignant tumors eroding the social fabric. Building on the fight against traditional criminal gangs, the campaign will focus on organized crimes committed through online platforms and soft violence.

CCTV cited data from the Ministry of Public Security stating that the number of criminal cases nationwide decreased by 16.1% year-on-year from January to May. However, the phenomenon of multiple regions investing financially in expanding detention centers and prisons has led to external doubts about the real public security situation.

The CCP Central Committee has deployed a nationwide deepened special struggle to crack down on gangs and eliminate evil, lasting approximately one year starting from July 2026.

Xinhua News Agency reported on July 31 that Chen Wenqing stressed at the national video conference on the special campaign to sweep away black and eliminate evil that, in accordance with the deployment of the Party Central Committee, a one-year deepened special campaign to sweep away black and eliminate evil should be carried out solidly.

In 2025, Hong Kong recorded a total of 89,137 criminal cases, 50% more than the 59,225 cases in 2019. Among them, 43,212 were fraud cases, accounting for half, with victims defrauded of HK$8.1 billion. Fraud cases have multiplied fivefold from fewer than 10,000 in 2019.

Data shows that in 2024, the annual number of criminal cases filed by Chinese police (Public Security) exceeded 10 million, a sharp increase compared to 2000, with the majority of short-sentence cases involving various "pocket crimes."

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced that the previously launched special campaign to crack down on organized crime and root out local mafia has come to a successful conclusion.

In 2021, the CCP announced that it would advance the normalization of the campaign to sweep away gangsters and evil forces.

China launched a nationwide special campaign to crack down on gangs and eliminate evil, which lasted for about 3 years and was announced to have ended in 2021.

During the 2018 constitutional amendment to allow term extensions, the Chinese Communist Party announced the launch of a three-year special campaign to "sweep away black and eliminate evil."

Hong Kong police carried out operations at twenty‑one locations in Yuen Long, arresting over a hundred people. The investigations covered illegal gambling, prostitution venues, illegal fuel and money laundering, involving funds amounting to hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. Among those taken away were prominent figures such as Guo Yonghong of Shenghe, as well as Deng Lidong, chairman of the Xiacun Township Committee, and Zeng Shuhe, chairman of the Pingshan Township Committee.