Top Procurator Vows to Keep Battling Corruption

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 26, 2001

Top Procurator Vows to Keep Battling Corruption

43,000 cases probed this year

China's top procurator Han Zhubin vowed Tuesday that the investigation and prevention of corruption and dereliction of duty will remain a primary task of the nation's prosecutors in 2002.

Han said the past year was marked by major reforms aimed at catching and convicting corrupt officials.

More than 43,000 cases of graft and dereliction were probed in the first 11 months of this year, that led to the recovery of 3.4 billion yuan (US$414 million) in ill-gotten gains.

Nearly 3,000 officials above the county level were investigated between January and November, and nearly 1,300 cases of graft probed involving more than 1 million yuan (US$120,000) each during the same period.

Among those convicted officials was Li Jizhou, former vice-minister of public security. Li was sentenced to death with a two-year suspension for taking bribes and being derelict.

Han said prosecutors also stressed a crackdown on supporters of gangs, delivering "a destructive blow to the gangs."

One of the highest-profile cases of this type involved the former mayor and deputy mayor of Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province. Mu Suixin and Ma Xiangdong were convicted of corruption and embezzlement and were found to have ties to local gangs.

Ma, the deputy mayor, was executed earlier this month. Mu was sentenced to death with a two-year suspension.

Crime-prevention networks set up

As a preventive measure, the Supreme People's Procuratorate joined with eight economic sectors this year believed to suffer high incidences of corruption and dereliction, Han said.

The eight were sectors involving finance, securities, State-owned enterprises, customs, construction, judicial, industrial and commerce and medicine.

Also, 29 provincial procuratorates and crime-prevention networks have been set up across nine provinces.

China's Firm Determination to Fight Against Corruption

Experts believe that corruption is a common global problem. Three generations of the CPC's leading collectives, with Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin at the helm, have always paid great attention to the fight against corruption.

The clear-cut attitude of the government in the fight against corruption has pleased ordinary Chinese people. A worker with the Environmental Protection Bureau of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region says: "The fall of some high-ranking officials shows the Party and the central government have been taking determined action against corruption."

An official with the Chinese Ministry of Supervision admits that China has achieved satisfactory results in its fight against corruption.

Statistics show that since last year hundreds of thousands of Chinese have reported cases of corruption through various channels. With the support of Party committees, the media have also moved in to step up supervision of the anti-corruption drive.

In the meantime, more books, movies and TV plays featuring anti- corruption are being produced and have become popular. Corruption and anti-corruption are often talked about in the street.

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