Beijing, China (AHN) – More than 60,000 pornographic websites were shut down by Chinese authorities last year. During the process almost 5,000 suspects were apprehended.

The figures were released by a government spokesman on Thursday and officials vow they won’t let-up on their efforts to eradicate material deemed obscene or vulgar.

Beijing launched a staunch campaign in the country’s media over what officials consider lewd or objectionable material.

Wang Chen, head of the State Council Information Office, however says the campaign is vital. Typically government campaigns against online pornography usually target all ‘unhealthy’ content, which includes political views that differ from those of the ruling Communist Party.

“Our campaign has been a great success and this has not been achieved easily,” he said during a news conference. “We have made the Internet environment much cleaner than before as there was a lot of pornography available.

“We have changed this situation and this has been well received by many sectors across society,” Wang said. “But our campaign has not come to a stop. This will be a long battle.”

“As long as there are people with bad motives who want to spread violent or pornographic information, we will have to continue our campaign to resolutely crack down on the spread of such information.”

Of the 4,965 suspects, 1,332 people were subjected to “criminal punishment.” 58 were given jail terms of five years or more.

During the government’s search authorities reviewed the content of 1.79 million websites and deleted 350 million pornographic and lewd articles, pictures and pieces of video footage.

China has the world’s largest online population with 450 million users however authorities’ widespread web censorship system is sometimes dubbed the “Great Firewall of China.”

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