Procuratorates making progress in fight against corruption

Procuratorates nationwide initiated prosecution against about 78,000 public servants accused of corruption and other crimes over the past five years, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Among those prosecuted, about 100 were officials at the ministry-level or above, including former Party chief of Chongqing Sun Zhengcai and former vice-minister of public security Sun Lijun.

Prosecutors confiscated ill-gotten gains in about 50 corruption and bribery cases in which the suspects had either eluded justice or died, said Sun Qian, deputy prosecutor-general of SPP.

Procuratorial organs worked closely with the National Commission of Supervision and strictly punished people who bribed public servants to seek personal gains. Over the past few years, about 11,000 people were prosecuted for offering bribes, Sun said.

Shi Weizhong, head of the SPP's third procuratorial organs, said that based on the handling of corruption cases, the phenomenon of industrial, systematic and regional corruption is prominent, not only in the traditional areas of finance, State-owned enterprises and other fields with concentrated power, capital or resources, but also in industries that have not attracted much attention before, such as grain purchasing and marketing.

The means of corruption have become more subtle and complex, and some crimes had been occurring for a long time before being discovered, Shi said.

The amount of money involved in the cases has continued to grow, often exceeding 100 million yuan ($14.6 million). Moreover, corruption involving officials' family members has become more prominent, with some using officials' power or reputation to obtain benefits, he said.