Discipline inspection and supervision departments in China's southernmost province of Hainanhandled a total of 352 corruption cases and punished 302 people involved in the first 11 months of last year.

This was disclosed by Ding Bodong, secretary-general of the Hainan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) at a press conference held over the weekend.

Among those punished were six bureau-level officials, 23 county-level officials, 70 township-level cadres, and 158 ordinaryParty members, he said.

The punishments range from dismissal from their posts and expulsion from the CPC to being handed over to judiciary departments for trial.

The penalized officials include Huang Xingfu, former mayor of the city of Dongfang, who was found guilty of taking bribes worth 82,000 yuan (about 10,000 US dollars) and gifts worth 20,000 yuan.

Dongfang's former vice-mayor, Lu Yuping, was also punished after being found guilty of taking bribes worth 10,000 yuan and bribing others with 40,000 yuan.

Lu Wanchao, former head of the Hainan Grain Bureau, is still atlarge after discipline officials informed him that he was under investigation in a corruption case.