BEIJING - Chinese police have arrested more than 4,000 suspects in a recent campaign to crack down on economic crimes, according to an official with the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) Tuesday.

Over a 12-day period, the campaign has busted 7,000 cases concerning economic crimes, Vice-Public Security Minister Liu Jinguo said at a meeting held by the ministry on the campaign.

Liu said the country is currently facing multiple economic crimes, and he called on the nation's police to step up their investigations into relevant cases to safeguard social stability and people's interests.

Liu also urged police across the nation to harshly crack down on crimes related to counterfeit invoices, money, credit cards and products.

He also called for more observation and study of the characteristics and trends of economic crimes, which could help police crack down on relevant crimes more efficiently.

The number of China's economic crimes being investigated increased by 10 percent year-on-year in 2011, and economic crime cases that were closed in 2011 rose by a record-breaking 13 percent year-on-year, Liu said at an MPS meeting last month.

Economic crimes include fraud, bribery, and embezzlement, and severe economic crimes carry the death penalty in China.