Much of the anti-smuggling campaign initiated by President Jiang Zemin last week will focus on illegal car imports.
Last year, only one-tenth of car imports were brought into the country legitimately.
According to customs figures, 10,000 cars were imported last year.
But the real figure is 10 times that, the China Daily Business Weekly reported yesterday.
Imports in the first four months of this year fell more than 40 per cent from a year earlier.
In recent years, Beijing slashed import duties on cars - by up to 80 per cent and even 100 per cent in some cases - partly in an attempt to make smuggling less profitable.
The strategy had some success, but regional currency devaluations in the wake of the regional financial crisis, particularly in South Korea and Japan, have again made foreign cars attractive.