The number of commercial corruption cases before Chinese courts
rose steeply to 5,662 in the first nine months despite harsher
penalties, according to the Supreme People's Court (SPC).
Xiong Xuanguo, vice president of the SPC, said courts at all
levels dealt with 5,429 commercial bribery cases involving civil
servants during the first three quarters, up 10.43 percent from the
same time last year.
The cases involved public officials charged with accepting
bribes from commercial organizations in return for official
influence or services.
The remaining 233 cases involved company employees receiving
handouts from other companies in return for business favors, up
3.51 percent from the same period last year, he said.
"We have intensified penalties for commercial corruption this
year. About 21 percent of criminals convicted in such cases were
jailed for periods of more than five years," said Xiong.
Wang Zhenchuan, Deputy Procurator-General with the Supreme
People's Procuratorate, said prosecutors investigated more than
9,000 commercial corruption cases during the first nine months.
The cases mainly occurred in the fields of construction, land
acquisition, ownership transfers of state-owned enterprises,
government procurement, medicine and medical appliances trade,
banking and securities and futures.
Premier Wen Jiabao early in the year pledged to give priority to
tackling commercial corruption to resolve persistent problems that
have infringed upon the public interests and to strengthen the
management of public servants.
(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2006)