China said on Wednesday it had arrested more than 1,480 people in a four-month nationwide crackdown on substandard goods, part of ongoing efforts to calm international worries over the quality of the country's products.

The General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said the arrests were the result of 1,187 criminal investigations nationwide into the manufacture and sale of fake or substandard food, medicine or agricultural products that started in August.

Thirteen major cases, such as fake drug albumin from human plasma and shoddy vaccine of blue ear disease, were solved while 64 people were arrested.

During the campaign, the country shut down more than 300 drug manufacturers, and destroyed or returned 168 batches of illegally imported or substandard pork, fruit and materials. It also set up quality files covering 33,000 consumer goods producers and put more than 10,000 enterprises into the country's quality-monitoring network.

Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said China must further improve product quality and consolidate the campaign results by building and perfecting a longer-term mechanism.

Since March, quality and safety issues of made-in-China products have been under the international spotlight, ranging from pet foods to drugs, toothpaste, toys, aquatic products and tires, among others.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)