BEIJING - The crackdown on piracy and counterfeit goods has to be stepped up, Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang ordered while presiding over a national meeting on the subject on Wednesday.

Wang said the just concluded Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee had raised the requirements for clamping down on piracy and fake products. He urged authorities to meet the requirements.

Wang said intellectual property theft and counterfeit crimes must be harshly penalized, and fines instead of criminal punishment must be avoided.

He also ordered all municipal and county level governments to stop using pirated office software by the end of the year.

So far, 93 percent of municipal governments and 80 percent county governments have replaced pirated software with original products, Wang said.

More than 230,000 piracy and counterfeit cases have been investigated so far this year, with 35,000 criminal suspects arrested.