China Punishes Nearly 50,000 Corrupt Officials Over Two Years

SINO DAILY

File photo of Wang Zhenchuan on a farm.

Beijing (AFP) Dec 11, 2005
China has prosecuted and punished nearly 50,000 corrupt officials over the past two years during an on-going campaign against graft, official media said on Sunday quoting a senior state prosecutor.

Wang Zhenchuan, deputy procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said the government and law enforcement agencies had made vigorous efforts to combat corruption, Xinhua news agency reported.

Wang made his comments during a conference in the southern city of Shenzhen but no details of the corruption cases were given.

A national audit earlier this year found that graft remained widespread in the government, with ministries including finance, education and health all misusing funds last year.

Reporting the findings of the National Audit Office in October, state media said the amount of improperly or illegally-used funds hit 9.06 billion yuan (1.11 billion dollars) in the 2003-04 fiscal year.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in September that corruption was endemic in China and had grown during its economic reform period, threatening the legitimacy of the communist government.

In a report, the OECD said corruption represented between 3.0 and 5.0 percent of China's gross domestic product, or between 409 billion and 683 billion yuan in 2004.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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