Guangdong to redouble corruption fighting efforts

A senior public procurator has reiterated Guangdong province's zero tolerance approach to corruption after 46 prefecture-level Party and government officials were investigated in the first 11 months of this year.

Yang Guangbo, deputy director of Guangdong High People's Procuratorate's anti-corruption division, said public procurators across the province will continue to spare no efforts in fighting corruption at all levels.

"Even though we have already achieved much, public procurators will never lower their vigilance to ensure the clean and honest operation of government," he told a news conference in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, on Thursday afternoon.

According to Yang, the province's public procurators investigated 1,309 major corruption cases involving 202 county-level or higher Party and government officials between January and November.

"More than 69.42 million yuan ($10 million) worth of economic losses was retrieved and turned over to the treasury after the suspects were investigated," he said.

Senior Party and government officials to be investigated for corruption in Guangdong this year include Li Qing, former director-general of Guangdong provincial environmental protection department, Jiang Wenfu, former Party chief of Guangdong Medical University, and Xie Liang, former deputy general manager of Guangdong Rising Assets Management Co.

Li was investigated in April on suspicion of accepting bribes valued at more than 22 million yuan from 2004 to 2012, and has now been transferred to Shenzhen Intermediate Peoples' Court for prosecution.

Jiang was investigated in May on suspicion of taking bribes valued at more than 2 million yuan, while in office and will be prosecuted by Foshan Intermediate People's Court.

Xie, meanwhile, is accused of embezzling more than 21 million yuan in public funds and taking bribes worth more than 500,000 yuan between 2009 and 2014. A court in Zhongshan has yet to pass a verdict on the latter case after a public hearing was organized on Sept 22.