State Council guideline to bolster fight against financial crimes

China issued a guideline on Wednesday strengthening curbs on money laundering, terrorism financing and tax evasion. Analysts said the move will improve the country's efficiency in fighting these financial crimes.

The country will create a comprehensive legal framework and powerful regulatory coordination system by 2020 to effectively control cross-border financial crimes, according to the guideline, released by the State Council, China's Cabinet.

The guideline said that although much headway has been made in combating financial crimes, many serious problems still exist, such as incomplete regulation, inadequate coordination and failure of ministries to fully share information.

The country will further strengthen coordination among government departments to fight cross-border financial crimes, the guideline said.

It will establish a risk assessment system and set up an assessment task group, formed by major ministries.

Authorities will strengthen anti-money-laundering regulation in "highly risky fields "and expand the current regulatory scope in combating money laundering and terrorism financing "at an appropriate time" to cover all financial sectors and some targeted nonfinancial industries with a high risk of such crimes, the guideline said.

"The move is timely," said Li Wei, an anti-terrorism expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. "Previously, we mainly focused on regulation of the financial sectors. Now we will expand our scope of regulation to nonfinancial sectors that may possibly become channels for terrorism financing, which will help ward off potential risks," he said.

China will also strengthen international cooperation in fighting such crimes.