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Since taking over in 2013, President Xi Jinping has led an
increasingly harsh crackdown on China's Internet, which the
Communist Party views with greater importance and acknowledges
it needs to control, academics and researchers say.
Police have investigated 7,400 cases of cyber crime, the
Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on its website.
It did not make clear over what period the arrests were made,
but referred to a case dating to last December.
China launched a six-month program last month, code-named
"Cleaning the Internet".
"For the next step, the public security organs will continue to
increase their investigation and crackdown on cyber crimes," the
ministry said.
The campaign would also focus on breaking major cases and
destroying online criminal gangs, it added.
The sweep targeted websites providing "illegal and harmful
information" besides advertisements for pornography, explosives
and firearms and gambling. In total, the police said they
investigated 66,000 websites.
China runs one of the world's most sophisticated online
censorship mechanisms, known as the Great Firewall. Censors keep
a tight grip on what can be published, particularly material
that could potentially undermine the ruling Communist Party.
In February, China's internet watchdog said it would ban from
March 1 internet accounts that impersonate people or
organizations, and enforce the requirement for people to use
their real names when registering online accounts.
(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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