A communique issued after a plenary meeting of the discipline watchdog of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in January said, "The task of anti-corruption remains arduous. The war on corruption has scored evident achievements, but prominent problems still exist, and although anti-corruption efforts have been intensified, corruption still occurs."

It said greater efforts would be made to build a system of corruption prevention and control and more emphasis would be put to the combination of prevention and punishment in 2012, which the communique called "a year of significance" for deepening the anti-corruption drive.

Zheng Hong, an NPC deputy and procurator-general of the People' s Procuratorate of Guangdong Province, said, "A concept should be established to view both punishment and prevention as achievements. Investigating and preventing work-related crimes are equally important."

Zheng said the prevention of such crimes should be done in a comprehensive manner, employing measures of education, preventive investigation and crime-file inquiring to advance prevention in both individuals and industries.

Meanwhile, Zheng said preventive work should be intensified in grassroots organizations and corruption-prone areas just as in big construction projects.

Chen Shu, an NPC deputy and lawyer from the southern city of Guangzhou, said the more emphasis on prevention shows China is improving its anti-corruption system to reduce work-related crimes at the root. This would mean less damage to the society, Chen added.

As the current national anti-corruption five-year plan will end by this year, Chen proposed harsher punishment for bribers in drawing the next plan.

"This is to create a social environment that will eventually lead to the ban on the corrupt 'hidden rules', and to confine market entities to operate according to the law. It's also a preventive measure in another perspective," Chen said.