China attacks pirates, pornography

Authorities seize nearly 149 million items

By CLIFFORD COONAN

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities confiscated nearly 149 million magazines, CDs and other publications in 2007 for being pornographic, pirated or otherwise unauthorized.

Some 136 million items were pirated.

China has recently reaffirmed its commitment to clamping down on smut and four million of the confiscated items were pornographic, according to the National Office for Cleaning Up Pornography and Fighting Illegal Publications, quoted on the Xinhua news agency.

The campaign has closed 44,000 China-based porn sites and 14,000 sites run outside China.

Washington has taken Beijing to task over what it sees as its failure to halt the multi-million-dollar piracy business in China and has complained to the World Trade Organization, much to Beijing's irritation.