Cao Jianming, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China, speaks during the annual session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 12, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

China will continue to take "zero-tolerance" attitude toward fighting the corrupt senior government and Party officials.

Forty-eight high-ranking tigers stood trial last year as part of the nationwide anti-graft campaign. Another 21 were placed under investigation for alleged corruption, down by 49 percent on 2015, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

Among those 48 punished included Ling Jihua, former vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, who was sentenced for life imprisonment for bribery, illegally obtaining State secrets and abusing his power; and Su Rong, a former State-level official who was sentenced to life in prison for corruption.

China has also launched investigations into 21 officials of vice-ministerial level or above, including Wang Min, former Communist Party of China chief of Liaoning Province; Wang Baoan, former head of the National Bureau of Statistics; and Lyu Xiwen, former Beijing deputy Party chief, it added.

This year, prosecuting departments will focus on establishing cohesion mechanism with the supervisory commission and keep playing an active role to combat corruption, said Cao Jianming, prosecutor–general at the SPP, while delivering the annual report to the top legislature on Sunday.

In addition, the prosecutors will attach great importance to investigating the corrupt officials who abuse power to accept bribes, get elected by bribery and trading their job positions. They will severely punish those who indulge malfeasance and neglect their duties, or accept huge bribes when serving as the grass-roots officers.

Cao said they will also take measures to prevent corruption in poverty-relief areas and supervise key poverty-alleviation programs laid out in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

According to figures released by SPP, prosecuting departments investigated 47,650 officials at all levels for duty-related offenses last year, down 12.2 percent compared with 2015. This included 10,472 accused of accepting bribes, up by 21.5 percent.

Since October 2014, when the SPP launched a special project targeting the corrupt fugitives and confiscating their ill-gotten assets, prosecutors have brought back 164 corrupt officials from 37 countries and regions, including the US, Canada, Australia and Singapore.

Late last year, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the top legislature, approved a pilot reform program to produce an integrated supervision system that will be more authoritative and efficient in tackling corruption.

According to the top anti-graft watchdog, Beijing, Shanxi and Zhejiang have been chosen as pilot areas for the reform of supervisory commissions and the measures will be gradually expanded across the country.