China Crackdown on Dissidents Urged : Asia: The country’s top prosecutor also assails a rise in ‘serious and pernicious’ crimes ranging from murder to bombings.

Top legal officials, in reports today to China’s Parliament, called for tougher action against political dissidents and criminals.

Liu Fuzhi, China’s highest-ranking prosecutor, sharply criticized “an extremely small number of people” who “stubbornly support bourgeoise liberalization,” a term used to describe the spread of ideas of freedom and democracy. Such dissidents “are still engaged in illegal activities subverting the state power of the people’s democratic dictatorship,” he said.

Liu also declared that “serious and pernicious cases of murder, robbery, rape, bombings and other crimes are becoming more frequent. Train and highway robbery are rather noticeable, and some gangsters are forming organized crime networks.” He complained that “criminal activities of entrapping the masses with feudal superstition and using religion to create trouble are spreading.”

Liu provided no details on bombings, but a few sketchy reports have reached Beijing during the past year of bomb incidents in border areas, such as the far western region of Xinjiang, that apparently involved anti-Chinese feelings among ethnic minorities. There have also been cases of unexplained explosions in Beijing and other big cities that may be linked to anti-government sentiment.

“We must strengthen the people’s democratic dictatorship . . . and punish criminals quickly and severely,” Liu declared.

Supreme People’s Court President Ren Jianxin, in his report to the National People’s Congress, listed various statistics that provide insight into social conditions.

Chinese courts dealt with 427,607 criminal cases in 1991 and convicted 509,221 individuals, of whom 184,334 received sentences of at least five years, Ren said.

Among those sentenced, he said, were 5,316 people convicted of drug-related offenses and 18,185 people who “engaged in abducting, kidnaping and selling women and children (into forced rural marriages or to the families of strangers); inducing or forcing women into prostitution, or producing, selling and spreading pornography, as well as organized gambling.”

Courts also convicted 33,871 people of economic crimes such as embezzlement and bribe-taking, Ren said. In connection with these cases, 523 million yuan ($97 million) of ill-gotten wealth was recovered, he said.

Public anger at official corruption was one of the factors behind the outbreak of massive pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing three years ago, which were ended by a bloody crackdown.

Since then, the government has sought to portray itself as engaged in a serious fight against corruption.

It is unclear whether any real progress has been made. But some individuals have been severely punished and their cases then held up to the public as proof of the government’s determination.

Ren cited two such cases. Guan Zhicheng, a high-ranking Communist Party official at the Capital Iron & Steel Co. in Beijing, was executed after being convicted of embezzlement and bribe-taking totaling 1.41 million yuan ($260,000), he said.

Gao Senxiang, former chief of the CITIC Industrial Bank in the southern special economic zone of Shenzhen, was convicted of taking 1.8 million yuan ($333,000) in bribes. He too was executed, Ren said.