BEIJING -- China's copyright watchdog said that 3,908 websites have been shut down in a crackdown on copyright infringement in the past five years.

National Copyright Administration investigated 22,568 piracy cases nationwide and deleted more than 6 million links to pirated publications during the period.

The crackdown has been carried out for 13 consecutive years by the administration in cooperation with other departments, targeting online literature, music, videos, games, animation and software, as well as mobile apps, cloud storage and e-commerce platforms.

Online copyright infringement has been curbed and the public's awareness of copyright protection has been raised remarkably, said the administration.