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Top Corruption Watchdog Fights Customs Crime
China's top corruption watchdog has joined hands with customs authorities to crack down on crimes among customs officers.
According to a report in the Legal Daily, a document recently issued jointly by the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the General Administration of Customs called for efforts to prevent custom officers from committing crimes, including willful dereliction of duty, graft and aiding smugglers.
Under the document, the customs administration will be required to bring cases of suspected graft or dereliction to criminal prosecution departments.
Customs authorities should also co-operate with prosecutors in investigations and help them collect evidence, according to the document.
Customs authorities have attracted attention in China's battle against corruption lately as a number of high-ranking customs officers have been accused of criminal activities.
One of the latest cases involved former Deputy-Director of the General Administration of Customs Wang Leyi. Wang has been accused of taking bribes amounting to 820,000 yuan (US$99,000) and seizing 630,000 yuan (US$76,000) worth of State-owned property and other people's property.
China has intensified its crackdown on corruption in recent years. The campaign has been highlighted by executions of former Vice-Chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee Cheng Kejie and former Vice-Governor of Jiangxi Province Hu Changqing, both of whom were found guilty of profound corruption.
The campaign has also nabbed former Vice-Minister of Public Security Li Jizhou, who has been charged for his role in the smuggling case of Yuanhua, widely considered as the most serious of its kind in China.
According to figures from the Supreme People's Procuratorate, in the first four months of this year, prosecutors nationwide probed more than 15,000 cases of corruption and dereliction, involving more than 16,600 people.
Special attention has been paid to crackdowns on officials who have provided shelter for criminals.
Deputy Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Hu Kehui pledged at a recent seminar that prosecutors will focus on law-violating officials with connections to gangs, particularly those who have participated in gang crimes and/or sheltered gangsters.
The prosecutors' intensified crackdown is a part of a nationwide effort launched since April this year that has focused on gang crime, violent crime and economic crimes.
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