Prosecutors and market watchdogs are pushing forward a joint campaign targeting unsafe food and drug products.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Medical Products Administration, announced that the nationwide campaign will run until December.

At a news conference on Thursday, Zheng Xinjian, a senior prosecutor with the SPP, said that in the following months, the campaign will focus on cases in and around schools, food markets, planting and breeding production bases, urbanrural junction areas and logistics centers.

He said cases related to infant food and medicine and other difficult cases with bad social influences will also be the focus of the crackdown.

Zheng said that prosecutors will recommend heavier punishment for those involved in food and drug crimes, acknowledging that the cost of breaching the laws had been low in recent years.

Unsafe food and drug products have been a long-standing problem in China, and the number of crimes involving counterfeit food and drugs remains high.

According to the SPP, about 12,000 people were charged with producing or selling fake or substandard drugs or toxic food products last year, an increase of 5.5 percent over 2017.

As the issue concerns everybody's vital interests, the central leadership has attached great importance to it. President Xi Jinping has required that food and drug safety supervision should be strengthened with the strictest standards and the severest punishment.

An education campaign, with the theme "staying true to our founding mission", was launched throughout the Communist Party of China in June. It urged all Party members to keep firmly in mind the Party's fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people.

Since June, education activities for Party members, including seminars and lectures, have been held in the procuratorial organs at all levels. Zhang Jun, procurator-general of the SPP, urged all Party members at a meeting in June to put what they had learned into their work.