The Supreme People's Procuratorate of China (SPPC) announced on
Tuesday at a press conference that authorities across the country
prosecuted 8,517 officials for dereliction of duty between June
2004 and June 2005, up 2.3 percent from the same period the
previous year.
According to statistics released yesterday by the SPPC, between
July 1, 2004 and the end of June 2005, the nation's prosecutors
handled more than 1,200 cases of bodily harm or the violation of
civil rights, up 7.7 percent from the year before. These cases
involved 1,751 government officials, an increase of 8.3
percent.
Wang Zhenchuan, vice president of the SPPC said that the nationwide
special campaign to crack down on human rights infringement by
abusing public power has scored achievements. It constituted a step
forward for implementing the principle of "the state respecting and
safeguarding human rights," which is enshrined in the
Constitution.
Wang also disclosed that from July 2005 to the end of next year,
prosecuting bodies all over the country will launch another special
crackdown.
He said the current surge in cases of tax evasion, commercial
fraud, manufacture sale and smuggling of fake goods, severely
undermines the socialist market order, and are sometimes related to
officials' fraudulent practices.
The new statistics from the SPPC showed that from 2000 to June
2005, China's prosecuting body investigated a total of 34,685 cases
of dereliction of duty involving 38,554 officials, cases that
caused direct economic losses of 48.05 billion yuan (US$5.9
billion).
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily July 27,
2005)