BEIJING — China has intensified its crackdown on smuggling via cross-border e-commerce, the country's customs authority said on Jan 21.

Customs across the nation handled 79 such cases last year, involving 10.49 billion yuan (about $1.62 billion), said Sun Zhijie, an official with the General Administration of Customs, at a press conference.

In these cases, smugglers usually used forged transaction certificates and stole consumer identities to enjoy preferential tariff and tax rates.

Ten typical cases of smuggling in 2020 were presented at the conference, with one of them relating to cross-border e-commerce.

Remaining on high alert over smuggling, Chinese customs handled a total of 4,061 smuggling cases last year, Sun said.