China: Launched Special Action to Combat and Punish Online Crimes

On 5 September 2022, China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS), alongside eight other government bodies, posted a Notice announcing the launch of an 18-month special action to combat online crimes. According to the Notice, the special action aims to address new types of online crimes involving public opinion extortion, illegal money lending and exploitation of information networks to carry out "naked chat" extortion. The MPS plans to increase the number of cases being investigated and the quality of the analysis it employs to determine the illegal content online.