32 senior officials under investigation in 2022

BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's top anti-graft body announced the investigation into a total of 32 officials registered at and supervised by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in 2022 amid the Party's continuous fight to uproot corruption.

The news of the investigation of seven such officials came just over a month after the closing of the 20th CPC National Congress, sending a strong signal that the tough battle against corruption will never stop.

Among the officials are Li Chunsheng, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of Guangdong Provincial People's Congress, and Hao Chunrong, former vice governor of northeast China's Liaoning Province, according to the website of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision.

A total of 840 fugitives were returned to China in the first 11 months of 2022 as a result of the country's global campaign to track down individuals suspected of committing duty-related crimes.

Among that number were 21 Red Notice fugitives and 132 CPC members and state functionaries, and around 6.55 billion yuan (about 951 million U.S. dollars) of illicit funds were recovered.

New fugitive Party members and state functionaries continued to be in the single digits last year.