Prosecutors in China have investigated 10,840 people suspected of involvement in bribery, corruption and embezzlement between January and March of this year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) revealed at a press conference on May 15.
A total of 6,759 people were investigated for embezzling more than 100,000 yuan ($16,050) or taking bribes worth more than 50,000 yuan ($8,025), accounting for 82.2 percent of all cases.
Some 661 people involved in corruption cases were officials at county-level or above, accounting for 6.1 percent of all cases, according to the SPP.
Xu Jinhui, Director of the SPP's Anti-Corruption Bureau, said that the number of corruption cases in the first quarter of this year had risen 24 percent compared with last year and the number of suspects involved in these cases had risen 19.8 percent.
Xu added that the number of cases involving officials at county-level or above had seen a 46.9-percent rise in the same period. The number of cases in which bribes exceeded 50,000 yuan or embezzlement reached 100,000 yuan had seen a rise of 26.9 percent.
The Communist Party of China launched a nationwide campaign, which is still ongoing, to crack down on corruption at the end of 2012. |