The press conference for the "Thunder 2019" special campaign jointly conducted by the police of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Photo: China Police site

Police in South China's Guangdong Province and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions finished a six-month campaign against cross border crime, apprehending 1,400 suspects and seizing 21 kilograms of drugs and 152 firearms. Experts said it shows the joint enforcement capability remains effective despite ongoing social unrest in Hong Kong. 

The annual campaign lasted from July to December, according to a statement from China's Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday. 

Two rounds of unified inspections were carried out during the period, in which the police investigated 17,700 entertainment venues and solved more than 1,000 criminal cases. 

The police also intercepted 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) and HK$30,000 ($3,800) of illicit money, according to the statement. 

The tripartite police campaign shows that the joint governance mechanism in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area remains unaffected in spite of the Hong Kong unrest, Fan Peng, a researcher at the Institute of Political Science under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

"The enforcement capacity of the Hong Kong police can be demonstrated in the campaign, which shows that the months-long riots in Hong Kong have not affected the participation of Hong Kong police in the joint operation in the Greater Bay Area," said Fan. 

A number of cross-border criminal gangs were tackled during the campaign. For example, police from Zhuhai, Guangdong cooperated with police in Macao in cracking two gangs and seizing more than 120 suspects in October.    

In August, police from Shenzhen and Hong Kong also worked together in cracking down on a smuggling group, seizing 13 suspects and 58 stowaways and successfully cutting a smuggling route from Vietnam to Guangdong.