China destroyed nearly 13 million pirated CDs, DVDs and computer software on Saturday as part of a 100-day intensive crackdown on piracy, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

The illegal products were confiscated nationwide, with six million from Guangdong, one million from Beijing, 1.88 million from Sichuan, 600,000 from Liaoning, 500,000 from Jiangsu, 750,000 from Fujian, 300,000 from Shandong and 230,000 from Henan, the ministry said.

The 100-day campaign started on July 25 and is said to be unprecedented in terms of its duration and number of government departments involved.

Police and copyright officials have raided more than 537,000 publication markets, shops, street vendors and distribution companies, and closed down 8,907 shops and street vendors, 481 publishing companies and 942 illegal websites in two months.

Local police in southeast China's Guangdong Province alone had uncovered four major illegal CD and DVD production lines since the beginning of this month. And altogether ten illegal production lines have been busted nationwide this year, the ministry said.  

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2006)