Wednesday, November 22, 2000, updated at 17:02(GMT+8)
China
172 Officials Punished in Guangdong for Corruption
In an endeavor to fight against corruption in the government, Guangdong Province in south China punished according to law 172 officials so far this year on charges of abusing power and accepting bribes.
The Provincial Procuratorate seized over 100 million yuan (US$12 million) of embezzled money in 3,295 corruption cases in the first ten months, said Xu Tianxiang, vice attorney-general and director of the Guangdong Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Among the removed officials are 14 high-ranking officials, including the former director of the Jiulong Customs in Shenzhen City, a vice manager of the state-owned Maoming Petrochemical Co. and several officials with the police, taxation and industrial and commercial departments.
At present many of the corruption and embezzlement cases are still under investigation. So far, some 150 implicated officials voluntarily turned themselves in to the procuratorate.
In an endeavor to fight against corruption in the government, Guangdong Province in south China punished according to law 172 officials so far this year on charges of abusing power and accepting bribes.