Chinese authorities have closed dozens of illegal producers of Falun Gong material or pornographic and pirate DVDs, the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Piracy Office announced on Friday to coincide with the launch of a major campaign against piracy.

Among those arrested were publishers of Falun Gong leaflets, books and scrolls in the northeastern Heilongjiang province.

On July 21 last year, police in Daqing, found photos of an apartment complex in the city hanging Falun Gong scrolls published on the Minghui website, which is run by the cult.

Zhou Guilan and Zhang Jingqi were arrested on March 28 after allegedly downloading Falun Gong-related content from the website and making more than 100 promotional books and more than 2,000 leaflets.

A total of 4,254 items, including DVDs, and scrolls and leaflets with Falun Gong content, were confiscated.

In the southern Guangdong province, eight illegal VCD production lines were closed.

Eight people were jailed for three years each after being convicted of running two lines in a factory basement in Jiangmen.

Police in Shenzhen discovered more than 60,000 pirate VCDs and more than 730,000 half-ready disks from an illegal production line opened in July 2005. Manufacturing more than 30,000 VCDs a day, they had made more than seven million on discovery.

A website, named "artilleryman club" in Harbin, Heilongjiang, that contained pornographic content was shut down. Du Jun was convicted of running the website and was fined 30,000 yuan (3,750 US dollars) and sentenced to jail for 11 years.

The government on Friday launched a 100-day campaign to crack down on the producers and dealers of pirated audio-video products and computer software.

The campaign, jointly launched by ten government organizations, including the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Press and Publication, the National Copyright Administration, and the Ministry of Culture, will target street vendors, underground shops and warehouses selling and storing pirate VCDs and software.

Source: Xinhua