Government and Policy
Crackdown protects classified geographic info
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-18 21:11
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BEIJING - A nationwide crackdown on illegal surveying and mapping has recovered classified geographic information and statistics in a timely manner, the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping said in a statement Tuesday.
In the 16-month crackdown launched by the bureau and six other central government departments last January, authorities across the country conducted 4,650 law-enforcement operations, busting 1,058 cases of illegal surveying and mapping, the statement said.
The crackdown has effectively safeguarded national security and the national interest, the statement said.
About 30 of the cases involved foreigners and military information. One case involved three German nationals while another involved a Japanese national.
The three German nationals and the Japanese national were caught surveying and mapping without Chinese government approval - which is against Chinese law - in central China's Hubei Province and in southeast China's Fujian Province, respectively.
The market for geographic information in China grew by 20 percent to 75 billion yuan ($11 billion) in 2009, according to the statement.
The statement said the crackdown has significantly improved order in the market.
The central government will speed up the development of supportive policies to boost the market.
The bureau also published new national standards for websites providing mapping services on its website Tuesday. There are about 420,000 such websites in China.
