The Chinese government is looking for ways to eliminate spam messages sent to computers and cell phones, and is soliciting public opinion on draft regulation that it hopes will tackle the problem.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said that any individual or organization found to send commercial text messages without the receiver's permission could face a penalty of up to 30,000 yuan ($4,900), according to state news agency Xinhua.

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The type of spam the government is targeting includes text messages sent via social media tools such as Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, and Tencent's popular IM service WeChat, a popular instant messaging service developed by Tencent.

There were an estimated 200 billion unwanted messages sent to mobile phones in mainland China just during the first half of last year, reports South China Morning Post, citing statistics from security company Kaspersky Lab. The firm also said that China is the largest source of spam, accounting for 22 percent of the world's spam messages.

The Xinhua Daily Telegraph reported that the two main reasons for persistent spam was the difficulty of investigating alleged cases, and a lack of action by telecoms operators.

"The senders responsible for spam are a complex group, and most spam being sent is done so by professional equipment," the newspaper wrote. "Some telecommunications operators have colluded with senders to make big profits."

In 2012, Chinese state television revealed that China Telecom gave allowed some advertisers to send spam in exchange for payment. This came four years after the company signed an self-enforced anti-spam pact with China's two other state operators, China Unicom and China Mobile.

Last year, more than 97 billion spam text messages were blocked by one mobile-phone security application alone, 360 Mobile Safe, an increase of 36 per cent on the year before, the app's developer Qihoo 360 said last month.  

TagsSpam, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, MIIT, china telecom, China Mobile, China Uncom, Kaspersky Lab