China says cuts bicycle thefts by half

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has halved the number of bicycles stolen to about 2 million in the past nine months, police said on Thursday, following a campaign to clamp down on theft months before its capital hosts the Olympics.

The country, home to a world record 460 million bicycles, has also cracked thousands of bike theft gangs, police officials told a news conference Web cast at china.com.cn.

"We strongly smashed illegal bicycle theft activities and constrained the growth of new cases," said Ma Weiya, vice-director of the police social security management department.

"Our work in these aspects will not let up. We need to see this work through to completion and ensure the problem of bicycle theft is gradually and thoroughly resolved," he said.

The government has introduced a system of identification numbers and buyers must register their bikes using their real names as part of efforts to curb widespread theft.

Stolen bicycles are so common in some places that people "shrug off the losses" rather than reporting them to police, Ma said, adding that the campaign hoped to change that situation.

China used to be known as a nation of bikes, until market reforms and a rapidly expanding middle class began to make cars king in its urban centres.

But the government is trying to encourage its citizens to use bicycles instead of cars, especially in cities like Beijing, where air pollution is a major concern that threatens to mar its hosting of the Olympic Games in August.

(Reporting by Lindsay Beck; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)