骚扰电话专项整治 (sāorǎo diànhuà zhuānxiàng zhěngzhì): Special campaign to deal with nuisance calls

Thirteen ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Public Security and the Supreme People's Court, issued a special action plan on Monday to address the problem of nuisance calls. According to the plan, a special campaign to deal with nuisance calls is to be conducted nationwide from July 2018 to December 2019.

The special campaign aims to reduce the number of nuisance calls people receive by strictly regulating telephone marketing activities in the financial field, including offers of loans, money management, investments and insurance. Financial institutions are urged to enhance their regulation of the telephone marketing activities of any third party organizations they have entrusted with soliciting customers. Telephone marketing activities involving house selling and house rental, medical service and healthcare products will also be strictly regulated.

The Ministry of Public Security will make greater efforts to crack criminal cases involving telephone scams, telephone racketeering and false advertising, and enterprises and individuals will be severely punished if they know of any illegal practice but still provide network and technology services to those breaking the law.