BEIJING — The latest salvo launched in China’s war on porn has hit more than 180,000 online porn publications.

Although it's unclear how the government defines "porn publications," authorities reportedly shut down more than 10,000 websites that included these publications. The crackdown was part of a countrywide Internet clean-up campaign that began in March that identified more than 5.6 million illegal publications.

Officials at the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said the publications were involved in the dissemination of pornographic content and were punished for law and regulation violations.

Earlier this year, 225 websites and more than 30,000 blogs and Twitter-like microblogs were shut down that according to the Communist government offered “obscene or improper content."

And last September, about 97,000 blogs and microblog accounts in a seven-month long campaign were closed and accused of circulating “lewd” content.

Although the continuing war on porn was set to end this month, officials said it has been extended into late June.

The next step will involve closer investigations into cracking key cases of violations and more government management of websites.