Interpol aiming to bolster global role

Xi says top missions to fight cybercrime, terrorism and organized crime

Interpol, the world's largest international police organization, aims to take a bigger role as a coordinator of security forces around the world so they can better fight crimes together, the head of the organization said on Tuesday.

"Besides providing professional technical support, Interpol needs to take on the role of organizing international forces to conduct more global missions in the future," said Meng Hongwei, president of the International Criminal Police Organization.

He made the remarks at the opening of the organization's 86th General Assembly in Beijing after President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech.

Chiefs of police and security experts from 158 countries and regions are taking part in the four-day annual event of Interpol, which is headquartered in Lyon, France.

In his speech, Xi said China will support Interpol's efforts, and he mentioned three high-profile global missions: fighting terrorism, cybercrime and new types of organized crime.

Meng said that technological development and globalization have changed the nature of crime, which has become more international. No country is capable of taking on such unprecedented challenges single-handedly, he said.

"More than 70,000 terrorist attacks have happened around the world between 2000 and 2016, but the international community has yet to find effective solutions for the problem," Meng said.

Preventing overseas terrorists from returning to their home countries is key in combating terrorism, Guo Shengkun, China's minister of public security, said on Tuesday. He urged Interpol members to contribute more information on terrorist suspects to Interpol's database.

Tim Morris, Interpol's executive director of police services, said China has become one of the managers of the international police organization since Meng, who is also China's vice-minister of public security, was elected as the president of the organization in 2016. China is also expected to contribute more in maintaining global security, he said.

However, after Meng took on his new role, some people questioned whether China would abuse Interpol's red notice system. Red notices are issued when a subject is wanted by national jurisdictions for prosecution or to serve a sentence based on a court decision.

"I don't think that's the case because issuing the red notice or not is decided by an independent commission," said Nestor Roncaglia, head of the Federal Police of Argentina. Also, plans call for the commission's decision-making procedure to be more transparent in the future, Roncaglia added.