Episodes have been watched more than 3 billion times on Tencent Video site

Meng Fanxi started to watch Crime Crackdown, a television drama series based on China's campaign against organized and gang-related crimes, last month because veteran actor Sun Honglei, his personal favorite, was one of its stars.

After following the drama on the Tencent Video streaming site for several days, Meng, 25, said: "I couldn't stop it, as the sensational plots, mostly adapted from real-life cases, were so attractive. I even paid the internet platform to become a premium subscriber so that I could enjoy the right to watch four episodes in advance every week before they were aired on TV or screened online, which I'd never done for any other TV series before."

Meng, who works for a financial institution in Beijing, said the online drama gave him a chance to learn more about related cases that really happened and the country's efforts to combat organized crime, increasing his respect for laws and the justice system.

Under the guidance of the Communist Party of China Central Committee's Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, the 28-episode TV series tells the story of how an anti-gang supervisory group assigned by the central authorities investigates a mystery that has been unsolved for 14 years in a fictional city, and how it combats related organized offenses and officials who protect the gangs under what is known as a "protective umbrella".

Directed by Wu Bai, the show reveals the gang network in the city, telling how it developed into a huge threat to local residents with serious crimes, including disturbance of public order, rape and murder.

Broadcast online since Aug 9, the series quickly became a hit. Episodes have been watched more than 3 billion times on Tencent Video, and the show has achieved a score of 7.4 out of 10 on review site Douban and has also ranked as one of the most-discussed topics on China's Sina Weibo social media platform.

Ruan Chuansheng, a law professor at Shanghai Administration Institute who also followed the series, said its popularity could mainly be attributed to its adaptation of true criminal cases.

"The numerous online views of it signify people's constantly high attention to the crime crackdown and their increasingly strong desire for justice," Ruan said, adding that the series is one of the best channels to introduce the law to members of the public and help them know more about legal affairs.