Premier Li Keqiang urged on Tuesday that greater efforts should be made to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and to crack down on illegal and criminal acts involving infringement on rights and counterfeiting.

Protecting IPR is protecting entrepreneurship and innovation, and preventing counterfeits is directly related to people's health and safety, Li said in instructions to a national video and telephone conference on cracking down on IPR infringement and counterfeiting.

He urged local governments and departments to simultaneously develop laws and regulations while fighting against related criminal acts, strengthening coordination and ensuring that responsibility is clear at various levels.

The premier underlined the importance of protecting IPR throughout the whole process, with special campaigns being carried out in priority fields, requiring officials to further secure law enforcement that involves different departments, fields and regions and to make effective use of supervision.

Efforts should be made to deepen international cooperation, accelerate building a market-oriented and law-based international business environment and further unleash market vitality and public creativity, Li said.

In this way, greater contributions will be made in boosting entrepreneurship and innovation, promoting the sustained healthy development of the economy and improving people's well-being, he said.

According to the China National Intellectual Property Administration, China authorized 696,000 patents on inventions in 2021, with the average ownership of high-value invention patents reaching 7.5 per 10,000 people.

In the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index 2021, China ranks 12th, taking the lead among middle-income economies.