Online Interview
Topic: Crackdown on Smuggling – about Customs Anti-Smuggling Stories of 2013
Time:03:00 PM (Wed) March 12, 2014
Special Guests:Chen Jianxin, Deputy Director General of the Anti-Smuggling Bureau, the GACC
Online Interview Photos
Crackdown on Smuggling – about Customs Anti-Smuggling Stories of 2013
[Chen Jianxin]: The case was really a big shock to the society. After the case was settled, GACC received letters from the fur farmers who expressed special thanks to the Customs for their efforts in cracking down on fur smuggling and believed that the Customs gave strong support to the healthy development of domestic industries by the anti-smuggling campaign. 03/12/2014 15:08:28
[Chen Jianxin]: The specific investigation into the case was conducted in July 2013. At that time, Shantou Customs dispatched over 300 policemen to carry out the arrests in a unified manner in places including Huilai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong Provinces, and Beijing, Hangzhou and Wuhan under direct command of the Anti-smuggling Bureau of GACC and through close cooperation with local public security organs. They arrested 26 major criminal suspects, ferreted out a lot of physical, documentary and electronic evidence, and detected and detained about more than one million pieces of suspected smuggled furs. 03/12/2014 15:09:00
[Chen Jianxin]: Later, anti-smuggling departments of the Customs exerted much more efforts into the case, and the case was continuously expanded. According to the investigation results at present, the smuggling gang not only smuggled imported furs for domestic goods owners through false declaration of trade nature, but also purchased furs overseas and imported them in the mode of processing trade. When the furs were made into dressed furs or clothing products, they sold these products without authorization at home. The number of furs involved in the case including mink and fox skin reached over 10 million pieces with a suspected tax evasion amount of about RMB 1.7 billion. 03/12/2014 15:09:35
[Wang Hua]: That is to say, the furs were supposed to be imported in the mode of normal trade, but were imported as bonded materials. 03/12/2014 15:10:09
[Chen Jianxin]: Yes. Tax must be paid for import in the mode of normal trade. In order to evade tax, they declared the trade nature falsely, imported the raw furs purchased at auctions overseas by declaring them as bonded goods for processing with client-offered materials. Then they sold the raw furs directly or processed theme into dressed furs at home. 03/12/2014 15:10:34
[Chen Jianxin]: There have been great domestic demand for superior-quality furs in recent years, and the profit is very high, which has stimulated some smugglers to resort to various means to avoid customs supervision and evade a large amount of taxes payable to the State. Moreover, this led to unfair competition, affected the normal operating activities of enterprises and the healthy development of the industries, and disturbs the market order. 03/12/2014 15:11:18
[Wang Hua]: Mr. Chen, apart from smuggling of tax-related goods, what are the other focuses of the anti-smuggling joint campaign? 03/12/2014 15:11:53
[Chen Jianxin]: The anti-smuggling joint campaign has 10 focuses in total this time: 1. strict crackdown on smuggling of solid wastes; 2. strict crackdown on smuggling of major tax-related goods; 3. strict crackdown on drug smuggling; 4. crackdown on arms and ammunition smuggling; 03/12/2014 15:12:35
[Chen Jianxin]: 5. Strict crackdown on smuggling of rare animals and plants and their products; 6. strict crackdown on smuggling of resource products such as rare earth; 7. strict crackdown on the illegal and criminal activities of gaining export tax refund by cheating; 8. strict crackdown on the behaviors of carrying currencies to enter and exit China in violation of laws; 9. strict crackdown and control concerning coastal and border secret transport and smuggling; and 10. strict crackdown and punishment against transactions of smuggled goods in the field of circulation. 03/12/2014 15:13:02
[Chen Jianxin]: Based on the ten focuses and the anti-smuggling situation of the Customs across the country, we have summarized ten typical cases including the fur smuggling case cracked by Shantou Customs mentioned above. 03/12/2014 15:13:48