Guangming Daily August 29

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Cracking Down on TeIecom Fraud

Guangming Daily August 29

↓NEW XINJIANG PARTY CHIEF

Chen Quanguo， former Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China， has recently been appointed Party secretary of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He is the first official to have held the top Party post in the two regions since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

“Xinjiang’s development is especially important to China， so I feel proud and a heavy responsibility on my shoulders，” Chen said， adding that he is confident of ensuring Xinjiang’s stability and continued growth.

Chen， 60， hails from central China’s Henan Province. He joined the army in 1973. After retiring from the military， he studied at Zhengzhou University in Henan. He worked his way up from a township-level official in Henan to vice governor of the province， a post he held from 1998 to 2001. He later became governor of Hebei Province before being named Party chief of Tibet in 2011.

A recent telecom scam has once again underlined the importance of personal information protection. Xu Yuyu， an 18-year-old collegebound student in Linyi City， east China’s Shandong Province， died due to cardiac arrest after being cheated out of her 9，900 yuan（$1，482） college fund by fraudsters. Several other college students have also recently fallen victim to such deception.

Telecom fraud has become increasingly rampant in recent years. According to a report the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau published at the end of last year， telecom scams involve at least 1.6 million people and generate over 110 billion yuan （$16 billion） annually. Xu’s tragic death underscores the urgency of tackling the problem.

Fraudsters usually gain victims’ trust by providing their exact personal information including name， date of birth， ID number， and home address. To deter the leaking of personal information， a legal framework must be put in place as soon as possible.

To further gain victims’ trust， some swindlers pretend to be staff members of certain government departments. To prevent this from happening， authorities should inform the public of their official channels to publish information.

Xu’s tragedy should not have happened and shouldn’t be repeated. A thorough investigation into the case is expected to result in more effective efforts to combat the dark telecom fraud industry and better protect citizens’ rights.

“Any economic strategy that ignores China or treats that valuable relationship as anything less than critical and important is not just short-sighted， it is irresponsible.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau，highlighting economic cooperation with China in a dialogue with Chinese entrepreneurs in Beijing on August 30 during his first official visit to China

“Since movie stars' exorbitant remuneration has caused a public outcry and is believed to worsen income disparities， a new law is needed.”

Dong Zhongyuan， a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress， the country's top legislature， calling for legislation to curb film stars' earnings， which usually take up half of a movie's budget， on August 29