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BEIJING, Friday, (AFP) - A total of 229 Chinese police officers have been killed in the line of duty while carrying out a nationwide crackdown on crime, state media said Friday.

The casualty list, which also included more than 4,000 injured, covered the period from January to August this year, the Xinhua news agency said, citing police statistics.

According to the agency, the deaths and injuries were sustained during the "Strike Hard" campaign.

This appeared at odds with previous reports saying the crackdown did not start until April.

The "Strike Hard" campaign has been widely criticized abroad for the no-nonsense means employed.

Western diplomats in Beijing have said China has executed at least 1,800 criminals since President Jiang Zemin launched the crackdown almost six months ago.

The total number of executions during the period is more than the number of executions in the rest of the world over the last three years combined, according to the Amnesty International human rights group.

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