The work reports of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, made by top judge Xiao Yang and top procurator Jia Chunwang on Monday, sent the same signal: China's fight against corruption has been intensified, but the overall situation remains grave.

Procurator-general Jia Chunwang said that 35 officials at the provincial or ministerial level, 930 at the municipal level and nearly 14,000 at or above the county level were investigated for embezzlement, bribery, misappropriation of public funds in the past five years.

And Xiao Yang, president of the SPC and chief justice, said that Chinese courts tried and concluded 120,000 embezzlement, bribery and dereliction of duty cases, up 12.15 percent from the previous five years.

"Although the country's anti-corruption mechanism under construction has played an important role in checking the rise and spread of the vice, the general situation remain worrisome," said Mu Ping, an NPC deputy and head of the people's procuratorate of Beijing.

Mu said that the occurrences of major corruption cases in Beijing were involving more illicit money over the past three years than ever before.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in his work report last week that "we will attach even greater importance to combating corruption and encouraging integrity, and fight corruption unequivocally."

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2008)