China says crime down "greatly" year before Olympics

BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) China's crime rate fell in the first half of this year, a senior police official said today, just months ahead of a key Communist Party congress and a year before the Olympics.

''Crime cases such as murder, rape, arson and explosions which have seriously threatened people's sense of security have dropped greatly,'' police spokesman Wu Heping told a news conference.

Murders fell almost a tenth and arson cases were down by about the same degree on the same period last year, he added.

The number of cases involving ''explosions'' slid more than a quarter, Wu said, without elaborating.

''It is all thanks to efforts by local police to raise crime prevention awareness and improve their ability to crackdown on criminals,'' he added.

However, Wu did not give an updated figure for ''mass incidents'' -- an official euphemism for riots, protests and collective petitions.

Official figures show the number of ''mass incidents'' reached 23,000 in 2006, compared to about 10,000 in 1994, but already down from 74,000 in 2004.

China, obsessed with maintaining stability, is grappling with an acknowledged rise in social unrest, sparked by anger at a growing rich-poor divide, official corruption, pollution and land grabs without proper compensation in the countryside.

The government is determined to keep such problems under control ahead of this autumn's Communist Party Congress, a five-yearly meeting at which important leadership decisions will be made, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

''We are required to ensure the absolute safety of the Olympic Games, and make sure there will be no risk at all,'' Wu said, promising to give further details on security preparations at a later date.

In April, deputy public security minister Liu Jinguo said that the security of the party congress and of the Olympics were priorities, adding that police should handle mass incidents as quickly as possible to prevent conflicts from intensifying.

Despite the generally optimistic report, Wu said economic crimes of ''disturbing market order'' -- covering everything from the sale of fake goods to pyramid schemes -- rose more than a fifth.

''As management over fake goods gets stronger every day and more are discovered, and especially as the public learns more about protecting their own rights, more cases are reported,'' he said.

REUTERS BJR KP1504