The central bank Wednesday vowed to launch a nationwide campaign
against the rising tide of counterfeit currency.
Ye Yingnan, director of the Currency, Gold and Silver Bureau of
the , told reporters that, although the proportion of
counterfeit notes in circulation is relatively small, there was a
sharp rise in cases of counterfeiting renminbi (RMB) last year.
According to Ye, police netted 550 million yuan (US$66.5
million) of counterfeit money in 2004, a whopping 139.1 percent
year-on-year increase. Financial institutions across the country
seized a further 610 million yuan (US$73.7 million) in bogus cash,
up 45 percent from the previous year.
Counterfeiting occurs in all provinces, municipalities and
autonomous regions including Tibet,
with the amount of fake money seized each day totaling about 2
million yuan (US$241,000).
The sharp rise in reported counterfeiting cases can be seen on
the one hand to reflect the government's efforts to stamp out the
crime. But it is also indicative of how widespread counterfeiting
has become, and the urgent need to tackle this issue, which is a
threat to the economy.
Half of all counterfeiting offences were reported in Guangdong
in south China, with the biggest distribution base of counterfeit
cash being Henan
in central China.
With most forged cash being produced in Guangdong, the nearby
provinces of Hunan,
Hubei
and Jiangxi
all saw the seizure of fake money rise by more than 100 percent
last year.
Big cities and developed areas along the east coast also
reported an increase in counterfeiting, but a developing trend has
been for counterfeit money traffickers to move into smaller cities
and even rural areas.
And in addition to counterfeiting large denomination banknotes,
criminals have also started forging coins and notes of smaller
denominations. Police in Hunan last year raided five factories that
produced counterfeit coins, and seized 260,000 one-yuan coins.
Ye said that as fake money poses a threat to the country's
economy, it is imperative to crack down on counterfeiting. But the
task has become increasingly demanding because counterfeiters
employ high-tech methods for production and distribution.
According to Ye, for every 10,000 yuan (US$1,209) in
circulation, about 1.2 yuan is fake. This is approximately the same
ratio as in the US.
(China Daily May 19, 2005)