Produced by the Qiuxian County People's Procuratorate in north China's Hebei province, which obtained a special design patent granted by the State Intellectual Property Office, the pack of cards features attractive cartoon figures to highlight 52 types of white-collar crime.

The game became popular soon after it was launched on the Chinese market last April. So far, a total of 30,000 packs have been manufactured and orders from around the country keep piling up.

Li Weigang, a legal official with the procuratorate, said that packs were sold at cost price because their intention was not to make profits but to raise people's legal awareness.

Li said that the game has provided an overview of the range of corruption defined in laws, such as the misuse of authority, the embezzlement of public assets and obstructing the report of offenses.

As each of these crimes is illustrated with a cartoon and a humorous caption, people can immediately find out what the legal off-limits are when they go about their daily duties.

"My understanding about graft used to be fuzzy. But now, the poker game shows that if you receive presents from people who ask for your help on jobs, your palms are greased and you can be sentenced," a secretary of the Mengjie village committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Qiuxian County was quoted as saying by the paper.

Hou Junshan who designed all 52 cartoons said that he had consulted a number of legal references and books because nothing is a small thing when it comes to law.

"I'm trying to spread knowledge about complicated laws through simple and vivid cartoons. And I hope in this way people's legal knowledge will improve easily," said Hou.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2002)