BEIJING, May 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese police have cracked 277,000 cases involving economic crimes, seized 262,000 suspects and retrieved economic losses valued at 67 billion yuan (8.1 billion US dollars) since 2000, the Ministry of Public Security said Friday.

Hu Anfu, director of the ministry's Economic Crime Investigation Department, said the crackdown on economic crimes was of great importance in rectifying and standardizing the market order and in maintaining economic security and social stability.

To fight economic crimes effectively, public security departments at all levels have launched a series of special campaigns against tax-related crimes, smuggling, production and sales of fake goods, illegal pyramid sales, counterfeit of financial bills and notes, securities-related crimes and production of counterfeit money.

Since 1999, Chinese police have seized 2.2 billion yuan (266 million US dollar) worth of counterfeit money and 56,000 suspects in over 40,000 cases.

The police have also cracked 35,000 tax-related cases, retrieving 15 billion yuan (1.8 billion US dollars) in losses since 2001.

To protect the interests of intellectual property rights (IPR) owners, the police have also strengthened fights against IPR infringement, cracking 1,040 related cases, seizing 1,531 suspects and redeeming economic losses valued at 116 million yuan (14 million US dollars) in 2002. The number of IPR-related cases was reduced to 823 in 2003, with 1,153 suspects seized and 88.4 million yuan (10.7 million US dollars) retrieved.