Many fallen officials had occupied high-level posts, report Tang Yue, Zhang Yuchen and Wu Wencong.
When the trial of Bo Xilai begins on Thursday, the event will be China's highest-profile court case for years.
Bo, the former Party chief of Chongqing and a former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, will appear at Jinan Intermediate People's Court to face charges of accepting bribes, graft and abuse of power.
But even if he's found guilty, Bo will be just one of hundreds of officials at the level of provincial vice-governor, vice-minister or higher to have been punished for corruption and other misdeeds since the 1980s.
In a study on corruption that surveyed 103 fallen senior officials, Tian Guoliang, a professor at the CPC's Central Party School, has identified a pattern of criminality that reveals abuse of power in China.
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