Financial crime crackdown to be stepped up

Investigations and crackdowns on insider trading and market manipulation are to be intensified by China's national prosecuting departments.

The move follows recent turmoil in the country's stock market and is aimed at maintaining order in financial markets, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on Wednesday.

Xiao Wei, a spokeswoman for the SPP, said at a news briefing that national prosecutors arrested eight suspects involved in six cases of alleged leaking of listed companies' inside information between January and June. The number of such cases increased by 50 percent year-on-year, according to the procuratorate.