BEIJING - Chinese police forces have arrested 9,031 suspects in a nine-month special campaign to crack down on piracy and other intellectual property rights (IPR) infringements, a government official said on Tuesday.

A total of 12,854 underground factories making pirated and faked products had been shut down by police and 4,904 gangs selling those pirated goods broken up, said Jiang Zengwei, vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, at a press conference held by the State Council's Information Office.

Moreover, other administrative agencies at all levels across the country have investigated 156,000 relevant cases with the total money involved reaching 3.43 billion yuan (540 million U.S. dollars), and they have closed over 9,130 illegal plants making pirated and counterfeit goods, said Jiang, also a senior leader of the special campaign.

Courts have received 2,492 relevant cases during the past nine months and adjudicated 1,985 cases, he said.

Jiang said that the special campaign had made notable achievements in terms of ensuring that all government agencies use copyrighted software.

According to an earlier statement from China's National Copyright Administration, as of the end of May, all computer software used by the 135 central government agencies was authorized and legitimate.

The efforts have now been extended to government agencies at lower levels.

According to Jiang, the work will also include government-affiliated institutions and central state-owned enterprises.

"The Ministry of Finance has told central and local government agencies to list the expenses of the copyrighted software purchases in the fiscal budget and all the purchases should go through auditing procedures, so we can note that achievements we have made in this area are authentic and guaranteed," he said.

He said the purchases should also be conducted in a transparent manner.

"We have told local government agencies to follow the central government's practices and the government should always take the lead in IPR protection," he said.

Jiang said the country will continue to offer administrative and judicial relief to the IPR holders to protect their rights.

Efforts should be made to reduce the IPR holders' costs in protecting their rights and interests, and to increase the violators' risks by imposing harsher punishments, he said.