Editor’s note: The anti-corruption campaign surging through China is the most significant political event in the country’s recent history. Led by Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping and his deputy Wang Qishan, it has heavily targeted officials closely tied to Jiang Zemin, for years the Party’s behind-the-scenes godfather. The campaign’s non-political aspect has also seen a mass cleansing of corrupt officials at a lower ranks around the country. This regular column documents the assault as events take place.
The Chinese regime’s anti-corruption watchdog must be working overtime in the first quarter of 2015.
From January to end March, a total of 9,636 people were investigated on corruption charges in 7,556 cases, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Communist Party’s top prosecuting body, said on Monday. About a third of the individuals were prosecuted.
According to state mouthpiece Xinhua, 2,573 government officials were investigated.
Bribery made up the most of the corruption cases, and about 88 percent of them involved sums of over 100,000 yuan ($16,000).
