Crime Dips, China Reports

PEKING — About 120,000 criminals have been captured since a crackdown on crime began in August, 1983, and 140,000 more have surrendered, reducing the crime rate to a record low, Public Security Minister Liu Fuzhi said in an interview published Wednesday by the English-language China Daily. He said that reported crimes dropped to 510,000 last year, 15.7% lower than the 1983 figure and the lowest rate since the Communists took power in 1949.