BEIJING - About 10 percent of China's imported garments last year failed to meet quality standards, according to an announcement by the country's quality watchdog on Thursday.

The imports were found to lack clear instructions in Chinese, have weak color fastness and abnormal amounts of fiber and formaldehyde. They also failed PH tests, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement.

The administration received 36,951 batches of inspection applications for clothing worth $695.36 million last year. Over half of the clothes were imported from Hong Kong, Italy and Spain.

Spot-checks were made on 14,959 batches, or 40.48 percent of the total. Some 730,000 pieces worth $12.2 million were found to be substandard.

The administration has asked the importers implicated to reprocess or destroy the problematic products.