However, the country's rare earth sector has been facing problems like smuggling, illegal mining and environmental damage issues.

然而，该国的稀土行业一直面临走私、非法采矿和环境破坏等问题。

They are part of the government's campaign to take firm action against the smuggling of illegal products to protect the image of "Made in China "products internationally, he said, adding Customs branches across China will further enhance the crackdown on third-parties involved in illegal transshipment acts in violation of IPR protection rules, form a regional law enforcement network with other trading partners and effectively prevent illegal activities in the port areas this year.

Jin Hai, director-general of the GAC's department of general operations, said this is part of the government's campaign to take a firm hand against the smuggling of illegal products to protect the image of "Made In China" products internationally.

Huang said Haikou Customs has cracked down on 79 smuggling gangs in the past two years, involving 250 million yuan in total value, and enforced tighter controls over the grey market driven by daigou, professional shoppers who buy duty-free goods from shops in Hainan on behalf of customers in other parts of the country.

Xia Feng, executive director of the Institute for Advanced Studies of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hainan University, said measures to prevent smuggling also need to be worked out.

Facing problems like smuggling, illegal mining, environmental damage and lack of high-value-added processing capacity in the rare earths industry, China has been strengthening regulation in recent years to protect the resources and raise the overall quality of the industry.

- China has intensified its crackdown on smuggling via cross-border e-commerce, the country's customs authority said Thursday.

Ten typical cases of smuggling in 2020 were presented at the conference, with one of them relating to cross-border e-commerce.

Remaining on high alert over smuggling, Chinese customs handled a total of 4,061 smuggling cases last year, Sun said.

However, the country's rare-earth industry faces problems such as smuggling, illegal mining and environmental damage issues.

"China's rare-earth export quota didn't have the desired effect on the importing countries, especially Western countries, because smuggling of rare earths was rampant and some export companies falsified customs codes to evade the export quota and continued to export them to other countries," Jin Baisong, a retired researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said in an article published on China Daily's website.

However, the country's rare-earth industry faces problems such as smuggling, illegal mining and production, lack of innovation and environmental protection issues.

However, the country's rare earth industry is faced with problems such as smuggling and illegal mining and environmental protection issues.

Jin Baisong, a retired researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, noted China's rare earth export quota didn't have the desired effect, as smuggling of rare earths was rampant and some export companies falsified the customs code to evade the export quota.

However, the country's rare-earths industry is faced with problems such as smuggling and illegal mining and environmental protection issues.

"It only started in the 1980s when China was doing business with the Soviet Union, and people started to smuggle pet dogs into the country.

"The country also needs to deploy more resources and manpower to crack down on smuggling activities done through vessels bound for scrapping. "

China is the world's largest rare earth producer and exporter, but the industry is beset by problems including illegal mining, smuggling and its lack of ability to produce high value-added products.

The Criminal Law includes in its definition of money laundering hiding income and benefits generated from drug-related crimes, organized crime, terrorism, smuggling, embezzlement and bribery, financial fraud and cleaning income by various means.

The focus of public security efforts was on tackling illegal production and trafficking, smuggling, and online sales of firearms and explosives.

The National Internet Finance Association of China also warned investors earlier that bitcoin and other "virtual currencies" lack a clear base for valuation, and have become tools for illegal fundraising, money laundering, drug dealing and smuggling.

The project, which could require investment of $30 million and is now waiting for governmental approvals, aims to enablexa0cattle to be legally exported to China, adding that Myanmar people raise cows and bulls but do not eat beef while others smuggle cattle into China.

Some defendants were also charged with smuggling precious metals, illegal possession of guns and border-crossing.

Such crimes are well-organized, and include illegal excavation and theft, selling and smuggling.

Li noted that immigration authorities have focused on combating cross-border illegal crimes such as smuggling migrants, firearms and drug trafficking, as well as involvement in gambling and fraud abroad, and they have thoroughly investigated and cracked down on the behind-the-scenes culprits, transportation networks and criminal networks.

Efforts have been made to strengthen international law enforcement cooperation and pursue the leaders and core members of smuggling gangs hiding abroad.

A year earlier, the drug dealers shot dead a Chinese police officer while trying to smuggle drugs into China.

On the same day, the Supreme People's Court, the country's top court, also issued a report showing that Chinese courts heard 2,252 criminal cases concerning pollution and 102 relating to waste smuggling.

In addition, the coast guard also kept cracking down on human smuggling, with an increasing risk of maritime smuggling, as smuggling gangs have turned to explore sea routes, given that many countries' border control has been strengthened during the COVID-19 pandemic, the coast guard official said.

"Last year, the coast guards at various levels uncovered 45 cases of people smuggling, and 1,219 stowaways were arrested, successfully cutting off a number of maritime smuggling routes," said Liu.