The soaring price of copper worldwide has also led to spiralling levels of theft from telcos and other utilities.
The Ministry of Public Security and other agencies have made more than 40,000 arrests since June in crackdown on thieves targeting power, cable TV and telecom infrastructure.
The MII recorded more than 190,000 cases of theft of telecom equipment in 2006, up from 53,000 cases in 2005, CCTV's Economic Half-Hour program reported.
Xiang Guogang, the head of Sichuan Telecom, said the provincial carrier suffered at least four thefts of copper plant daily and about two attacks a week on its fiber cabling.
"This is China's tier one backbone, it is very important," he said. "Equipment at bank and securities firm are all affected. Our head office in Beijing calls and asks, "Ëœwhen will you fix it‾'"
He said the thefts caused direct losses of several millions of yuan to Sichuan Telecom as well as huge indirect losses.
More than 30 of China Mobile's 180 base stations in Zhangping county, Fujian, have been targeted by thieves. One base station site is a popular target because it is near a main road. Recently thieves once again stole its air-conditioning unit for copper cabling and the compressor, which also contains copper.
In response, utilities and operators have increased security, putting air-conditioning units in an elevated location and putting them in a stronger casing, equipped with alarms.
Carriers have replaced some copper materials with iron and aluminium. Although these are not good conductors, they are cheaper to buy and less attractive to thieves.
But when Zhangping county thieves discovered there was nothing to steal, they set fire to the base station, damaging the external antenna and transmission line, causing losses of 400,000 yuan.