A cross-border smuggling ring using high-tech equipment to ship smartphones across the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border has been busted, marking the first of such cases.The gadget-savvy criminals used drones to fly wires between buildings on the Hong Kong and mainland sides. Once secured, and using an electric winch and pulley system, the wires formed a high-level crossing to convey contraband from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.The 26 members of the cross-border smuggling ring was found to be shuttling bags of mobile phones worth some 500 million yuan ($79.5 million), mostly refurbished iPhones.The crime ring and its ringleader, surnamed Wu, were detained after a joint operation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen law enforcement officers.According to the Shenzhen Customs Office, the suspects temporarily attached wires using flying drones to carry the wires from two rented rooms on the 25th floor of a residential building in Luohu district, Shenzhen, to a home in Lin Ma Hang village on the Hong Kong side. Their accomplices in the special administrative region then threaded the wires through a pulley placed on the rooftop of the home.Once a bag was attached to the wires in Hong Kong, the Shenzhen operatives would use an electric winch to retract the wires. They worked from midnight to the early hours to avoid suspicion, and the two rooms were covered with carpets to reduce the noise of the motor.Chen Liang, spokesperson for Shenzhen Customs, said the ring's every move had been thought through carefully, as neighbors were apparently unaware of the illegal activity.A total of 20 smartphones would be placed inside a small canvas bag and then sent from Hong Kong, ascending high above street level during their journey.About 10,000 to 15,000 smartphones could be smuggled in one day using this delivery method. For each successfully smuggled smartphone, at least 20 to 30 yuan could be earned. Revenues could be as high as 100 yuan for each new phone. It was estimated that smugglers could make over 10 million yuan per month, despite only working for 15 days.Acting on tips, law enforcement officers from both sides smashed the operation in February 2018 after months of investigation.A total of 260 Shenzhen Customs officers raided the rented rooms and arrested several suspects who had just finished retracting the wires to get the bootlegged goods. Also confiscated at the two rented rooms in Shenzhen were 4,000 smartphones and tools used to smuggle them. These included several motors that were burned out from overloaded shipments and backup motors. Hong Kong Customs detained three people connected to the activity, and confiscated 900 smartphones and associated tools.The gang, said to be operating since 2016, were comprised mostly of friends and relatives of Wu, the ringleader from Heyuan, Guangdong province. custom livestrong braceletswristband creationcustom rubber bracelets24 hour wristbands.comwristband design24 hour braceletsprinted wristbands
BEIJING - In about one year, 2,287 delegates have been elected to attend the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), to be held in Beijing from Oct. 18. The elections started in November 2016 after the CPC Central Committee stated the quota of delegates, their qualifications and the election procedure. According to requirements, nominees must be highly qualified politically and ideologically, have good work and life styles, be competent in discussing state affairs, and have been successful in their work. The election was competitive with more than 15 percent of the preliminary nominees eliminated during the process. Party committees at various levels encouraged wider participation of grassroots-level CPC members in the nomination process. Besides media coverage, lectures, and leaflets, they also used video connections, text messages, messages on instant messaging service WeChat, and telephone talks to include more Party members into the process. Those in remote regions such as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region even took mobile ballot boxes to towns and villages for voters. All grassroots-level Party committees were included, with 99.2 percent of Party members participating, 1.2 percentage points higher than the figure for the 18th CPC National Congress. The electoral units then conducted thorough investigations of nominees, listening to the opinions of both their supervisors and the public. After passing the investigations, the delegates, elected from across the country when local Party committees held their congresses this year, will need to pass a further check to get final approval to attend the congress. Compared with the delegates to previous CPC national congresses, this year's list features more from frontline production and manufacturing, minority ethnic groups, and women. Among them, 771 delegates are from frontline production and manufacturing, including workers, farmers, and technicians, accounting for 33.7 percent of the total, up by 3.2 percentage points from five years ago. These delegates not only come from traditional industries like manufacturing, transportation, steel and coal, but also from sectors such as finance, the Internet, and social organizations. The representation of female CPC members and members from ethnic minority groups is also rising, reaching 24.1 percent and 11.5 percent of the total respectively. The average age of the delegates is 51.8, about 0.2 year younger compared with the 18th CPC National Congress, and about 70.6 percent of them are under the age of 55.
