BEIJING - Chinese police have rescued 92 children and two women kidnapped by a gang for sale and arrested 301 suspects, state media said on Saturday, in one of the biggest busts of its kind in years.

Police simultaneously swooped on locations in 11 provinces recently after a six-month investigation, China Central Television and Xinhua News Agency said, quoting the Ministry of Public Security.

An exact date of when the children were rescued and the arrests made was not given.The report did not give a breakdown of how many boys and how many girls were kidnapped.

A traditional preference for boys, especially in rural areas, is among reasons that have contributed to a rise in the trafficking of children and women in recent years.

Kidnapped women are sold to men in remote areas who are unable to find brides.

Xinhua said the government would impose harsher punishment on people who buy kidnapped children and also punish parents who sell their children.

China has trumpeted the success of an intensified crackdown on the kidnapping and sale of children and women recently. In 2011, police said they had rescued more than 13,000 abducted children and 23,000 women over the past two years or so.