China's prosecutors have recovered a total of 31.26 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) through investigation and prosecution of corruption and bribery cases since 2005, said the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

Procurator departments nationwide placed 146,570 corruption and bribery cases involving more than 170,000 people on file, said figures released at a national conference to fight corruption and work-related crimes on July 14.

Among those investigated, 13,192 officials were at or above the county level. Further, 8,776 cases involved funds of more than 1 million yuan ($147,000), according to the SPP.

The prosecution offices apprehended 6,148 fugitives in connection with corruption and bribery cases during this period, including 71 who were then living abroad.

"Embezzlement and bribery cases are carried out in more complicated, covert and smarter ways" and they usually "involve a greater sum of money covering more fields," said the SPP's anti-corruption bureau.