Of the 4,965 suspects, 1,332 people received criminal punishment with 58 jailed for five years or more, said Wang Chen, head of the State Council Information office.
Chinese officials, who have shut down more than 60,000 porn sites in the past year, said the government is vowing no let-up in its campaign against smutty and lewd content, which officials said is overwhelming the country’s Internet and cell phones, threatening the emotional health of children.
Critics said the government’s campaign has targeted sites with politically sensitive or user-generated content.
But Chen said the crackdown has been well-received by many sectors across society.
"We have made the Internet environment much cleaner than before as there was a lot of pornography available,” Chen said.
"As long as there are people with bad motives who want to spread violent or pornographic information, we will have to continue our campaign to resolutely crack down on the spread of such information."