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The Chinese government had arrested 774 people over the past two months as part of a nationwide action on the production and sale of bad-quality food, drugs and agricultural products.

Government regulators plotted the arrests as a major step forward for food and drug safety, and said the suspects were locked up during nationwide inspections of thousands of restaurants, food and drug production facilities and wholesale food markets.

Determined to stop producing and even exporting bad-quality goods, China promised earlier this year to improve its food and drug safety regulations and to close down illegal manufacturers and exporters.

Last summer, the government even sentenced to death the former head of the nation’s food and drug administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, after he was accused of accepting bribes（贿赂）and failing to properly supervise food and drug companies, some of which had even sold fake drugs.

But the government also acknowledged today that problems remain. In its announcement, it said that this month only 82 percent of the food tested in medium and large cities in China met food safety standards, and nearly 30 percent of the restaurants surveyed by regulators had failed food safety inspections.