"In the foreseeable future, gangs will remain active as the country undergoes dramatic social and economic changes," the China Daily quoted an unnamed public security ministry official as saying.

"Gang-related crimes have become a threat to our social stability and the economy," the official said. "They dare anything," he added, citing murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping and assault.

He said the public security ministry plans to set up a special division to fight such crimes, including organised prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking.

Figures from China's supreme court show that gang-related crime in 2007 was up by 161 percent year-on-year, the newspaper said.

Police will also keep a close eye on problems stemming from unemployment caused by the ongoing economic downturn, especially in China's export-oriented industries where workers are being laid off, it said.

"Social changes that the country is going through are behind gang crimes," the paper cited Liang Huaren, a criminal law expert at the China University of Political Science and Law, as saying.

The large number of laid-off workers and migrants, as well as a widening gap between China's rich and poor, was also leading to more gang-related crimes, he said.

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