Ruili port in Southwest China's Yunnan Province links the country with Myanmar. Photo: VCG

 

China-Myanmar border city Ruili in Southwest China's Yunnan Province vows to ramp up efforts to guard the gates against COVID-19 by rewarding tip-offs of up to 50,000 yuan ($7,700) about border-related crimes that can result in imported cases and the spillover of the pandemic to other provinces. 

The city cleared all its medium- and high-risk areas on September 15 for the fourth round of the domestic epidemic flare-up since early July caused by the Delta variant, which had been found in neighboring countries. 

Starting Tuesday, the local epidemic prevention and control headquarters have encouraged local residents to proactively discover and report border-related crimes, such as organizing and leading illegal stowaways, smuggling and drug trafficking to consolidate the achievements of epidemic prevention. 

Tip-offs of crimes that will be rewarded at least 20,000 yuan include illegally crossing the national border or smuggling by excavating or using underground passages, underground culverts or secret doors, windows, passages and holes of boarder buildings. 

The same amount will be rewarded to tip-offs about those destroying and crossing the border detention facilities, and the personnel on duty taking advantage of their positions to participate in or commit crimes. 

The whistleblowers can be rewarded up to 50,000 yuan if they capture the offenders on the spot and send them to the authority. 

Besides, residents can also be rewarded 1,000 yuan for discovering secret passages or damaged physical containment facilities at the border. 

Tip-offs about those avoiding boarder inspections can get a reward of at least 500 yuan, and the maximum reward can be up to 5,000 yuan if the offenders are captured and sent to the authority. 

Tip-offs reporting using, smuggling or trafficking drugs can also solicit a reward ranging from 1,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan, officials said. 

Global Times