Reviewing the achievements in the anti-corruption struggle in 2001,
the president of China's Supreme People's Court and the president
of the Supreme People's procuratorate said that the law-enforcement
agencies exhibited more teeth in fighting corruption, contributing
their due share to building a clean government.
Reviewing the achievements in the anti-corruption struggle in 2001,
the President of China's Supreme People's Court and the President
of the Supreme People's procuratorate said that the law-enforcement
organs exhibited more teeth in fighting corruption, contributing
their due share to building a clean government.
According to their reports to the ongoing session of the National
People's Congress (NPC), the people's procuratorates at all levels
investigated 36,447 corruption cases involving 40,195 people and
more than 4.1 billion yuan in money terms. The number of cases each
involving one million yuan ran up to 1,319 and people involved
numbered 9,452, including 2,670 officials at the county level and
above and six officials at provincial and ministerial level such as
Li Jiating, former governor of southwest China's Yunnan
Province.
The people's courts at all levels convicted 20,120 criminals of
taking bribes and embezzlement, including five provincial or
ministerial level public servants, 89 prefecture level officials,
and 419 county-level officials.
According to the reports, the main thrusts of law-enforcement were
officials who accepted bribes and worked behind the scenes of
organized crimes or provided them with "protective umbrellas", and
public servants who shielded smuggling and the manufacturing and
marketing fake goods.
Criminal responsibility was affixed on any person who committed
crimes, irrespective of their positions, said President Xiao Yang
of the Supreme People's Court.
At
the same time, Xiao said, severer economic punishments were given
to those committing crimes of corruption and people offering bribes
were made to pay their prices.
The courts heard 493 bribery cases involving 539 people brought up
by the people's procuratorates, and closed 478 cases involving 525
people.
The people's procuratorates at all levels investigated 279 cases of
organized crimes, involving 345 officials last year. Bringing to
book included those who accepted bribes and shielded and instigated
criminal activities, those who leaked criminal cases under
investigation and schemed for counter-investigation, those who
provided protection of illegal activities by evil forces and those
who themselves were principal members of underworld
organizations.
The report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate revealed that
17,920 suspects of taking bribes and embezzlement were prosecuted.
All coming from state-owned enterprises, they were charged with
dividing up in private, appropriating or spiriting away state
property during the course of converting into modern companies.
In
addition, the people's procuratorates at all levels investigated
1,096 cases of bribing government functionaries.
The Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Public Security
joined hands in hunting out 3,046 criminals who had fled with money
embezzled, recovering 680 million yuan.
The people's procuratorates also made marked progress in preventing
career-related crimes, by helping set up 1,300 crime- prevention
organizations, which proposed departments concerned and government
departments to check on 28,500 cases.
Meanwhile, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and central
departments joined hands in carrying out systematic crime
prevention activities in financial, securities, state-owned
enterprises, customs, building trade and medical organizations,
helping them improve their rules and regulations, strengthen
management and set up effective oversight and constraining
mechanisms. Procuratorate organizations also carried out crime
prevention in major construction projects in the areas of
communications, energy and water conservancy, greatly reducing
crimes and financial drains.
(Xinhua News
Agency March 11, 2002)