32,000 investigated for corruption
By Liu Chang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-20 06:20

More than 32,000 people were investigated last year by public prosecutors in China for alleged corruption, and over half were found to be guilty, according to sources with the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

"We still face a serious task in fighting corruption," Xinhua News Agency quoted an official with the anti-corruption and bribery bureau of the Supreme People's Procuratorate as saying in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province.

Officials abusing their rights in personnel arrangement, justice and project authorization will be the focus for punishment. Other major target areas include finance, project contracting, land management, mineral development and government purchasing, sources said.

Meanwhile, the corruption case of the former vice-secretary of Shanxi Provincial Party Committee Hou Wujie is being reviewed by the No 1 Branch of the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate, and a decision will be made soon.

He was charged with accepting bribes of some US$100,000 from Shao Jianwei, the vice-director of the Taiyuan Municipal Bureau of Public Security, who was seeking promotion.

Hou was dismissed from post and expelled from the Party in 2005.

In related news, former vice-president of the Agricultural Development Bank of China Hu Chushou was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday for accepting bribes worth US$789,000.

(China Daily 01/20/2006 page2)