Beijing ? China said Monday that it had arrested 774 people in a crackdown on substandard goods, part of ongoing efforts to calm international worries over the quality of the country’s products.

The General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said the arrests were the result of 626 criminal investigations nationwide into the manufacture and sale of fake or substandard food, medicine or agricultural products between August and mid-October.

“All local authorities and relevant departments have maintained a high-pressure attitude toward their crackdown on the illegal activity of producing and selling fake products,” the AQSIQ, one of China’s main quality control agencies, said on its Web site.

The actions were part of a four-month quality-control campaign launched in August by a Cabinet-level panel, a high-profile attempt by Beijing’s leadership to show the world it was serious about tackling its perennial food and drug safety woes.