On January 1, under the central command of the GACC, Nanning Customs District and Shijiazhuang Customs District took a joint anti-smuggling action in which over 110 officers busted 4 sugar smuggling rings in Guangxi Region, Hebei Province, etc. Specifically, this joint action captured 10 criminal suspects, seized 675 tons of smuggled sugar in the field, and froze over 40 bank accounts involved in the smuggling case, marking the first shoot of customs anti-smuggling campaign in 2020.

The customs investigation indicated that, since May 2018, the criminal suspects have smuggled inward 11,400 tons of sugar, valued at 68.4 million yuan, with tax evasion about 37.4 million yuan, by false declaration of candy powder so as to circumvent import sugar quota in the ordinary trade. 

In 2019, the combat of sugar smuggling was operated as a key task of the “National Sword” campaign in the following ways:

(1) closer border control covering China’s southwest land borders, southeast coastal areas, Beibu gulf, Bohai bay and other non-customs-stationed areas; (2) collaboration with industrial associations in watching the northward smuggling trend on the basis of intelligence sharing; (3) investigation in market sales to find clues and comprehensive governance in cooperation with local administrations of public security, coast guard, transportation, railway, market regulation, etc. 

Throughout last year, China Customs handled sugar smuggling cases totaling 83, valued at 1.4 billion yuan, with tax evasion about one billion yuan, respectively up 23.9%, 1.28 times and 2.27 times year-on-year. Through the continuous crackdown, the quantity of illegal imported sugar in China has been sharply reduced, an achievement affirmed by the industrial associations and enterprises.

Next, China Customs will uphold the “National Sword 2020” campaign to further combat the smuggling of agricultural products for the sake of national agricultural security.