China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) has promised severe punishments for economic crimes that affect interests of lots of people, including illegally absorbing public deposits and fundraising fraud.

It also urged procuratorates to give more priority to the prevention of financial risks, cracking down on crimes such as money laundering and underground banking, and take an active part in Internet financial risk management, according to an SPP statement.

The SPP also pledged to strengthen work against manipulation and insider trading in securities and futures markets, and in supervision of property markets.

High-profile cases of financial crimes have been reported in China in the past years, including the illegal fund-raising activity of Ezubao and the case of Xu Xiang, general manager of a Shanghai-based investment company indicted for allegedly manipulating the securities market.

In 2016, 304 department-level officials from central government bodies received disciplinary punishment, according to disciplinary authorities.

Among the 304 officials, 126 were punished for violating the “eight-point” guidelines against bureaucracy and extravagance, according to a work conference on disciplinary work of central government bodies.

In 2016, discipline inspection authorities dealt with over 22,500 tip-offs concerning disciplinary violations of central state agencies’ officials, four times that of the previous year.

Chinese police solved 83,000 cases of telecom and Internet fraud in 2016, up 49.6 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

The ministry noted that the number of cases has dropped significantly since last September.

The increase in telecom and Internet fraud has been contained, the ministry said in a statement, adding that economic losses caused by telecom and Internet fraud in 2016 decreased by 10.9 percent year on year.

Last year, Chinese police dispatched work teams to several countries, including Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia and Spain, and took back 561 telecom fraud suspects, the ministry said.

In 2016, police nationwide busted nearly 7,700 telecom fraud rings.

According to the ministry, Chinese police have successfully stopped bank transfers to 73,000 fraud accounts and recovered 1.13 billion yuan (around 164.8 million U.S. dollars) since June 2016 when banks and police nationwide began cooperation to respond to telecom fraud.

A new human H7N9 avian flu case was reported in central China’s Hunan Province Sunday, the 20th in the province this year.

The 69-year-old female patient, surnamed Zou, was diagnosed in Changsha city, the provincial capital. She had contact with poultry before falling ill and is in a critical condition, according to the provincial center for disease control and prevention.

This is the second H7N9 case in Changsha. Five of the the 20 patients in Hunan died from the virus.

H7N9 is a bird flu strain first reported to have infected humans in China in March 2013. It is most likely to strike in winter and spring.