More corrupt officials surrender

The number of people involved in corruption cases who voluntarily turned themselves in to disciplinary and supervisory authorities last year increased by 35 percent over the previous year, according to the country's top anti-corruption watchdogs.

Some 16,000 corrupt officials across the country surrendered in the past year, up from 10,357 in 2019. From the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2017, which declared the Party is determined to secure a "sweeping victory" over corruption, to the end of 2018, about 5,000 Party member officials surrendered, official data showed.

The growth is "strong evidence of the continuous consolidation and development of the overwhelming success of the fight against corruption," the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, the top anti-graft watchdogs, said.

"Surrender" was among the top 10 buzzwords about last year's anti-corruption campaign in a survey by the watchdogs and the National Language Monitoring and Research Center. The word was also a frequent word in reports about corruption cases released on the watchdogs' website last year.

High-level officials who turned themselves in included Wen Guodong, former vice-governor of Qinghai province, and Wang Like, former secretary of the CPC Jiangsu provincial committee for political and legal affairs.

Wen was found to have acted as a "protective umbrella" for illegal coal mining in the province and taken tens of millions of yuan in bribes. He surrendered after the severe damage to the environment by illegal coal mining made headlines in August.

Wen said in a video interview with China Central Television after the problem was exposed that he had visited the scene of the illegal mining for the first time.

"There is a big dark pit left by mining, surrounded by grassland, with blue sky and white clouds in the distance. My first reaction was that the sky had fallen down and I felt that I had made a disaster," he said.

Those who surrendered also included grassroots officials, retired officials, young civil servants and staff of State-owned enterprises and universities, the watchdogs said.

In a case released by the discipline authorities in Zhejiang province, Ying Tierong, director of the rural construction office in a town in Zhuji, received bribes worth about 140,000 yuan ($21,650) from others. He surrendered himself to the local discipline watchdogs in September after he saw several land and urban construction officials in the city were put under investigation.

Ying's weight plummeted in a short time due to fear. After confessing his problems and handing over all the bribe money, he said he was finally able to sleep. He was later expelled from the Party and office.

In the past three years, discipline inspection and supervision organs across the country have filed more than 500,000 cases of discipline violations and punished more than 500,000 people involved in them each year, official data showed.

"The continuous high-pressure situation of anti-corruption has formed a strong deterrent to the officials who have problems, which has made them realize that taking the initiative to surrender to the authorities is the only correct way," the watchdogs said.

Many reports of corrupt officials being expelled from the Party and office by the watchdogs last year said lighter punishment could be given since they had voluntarily surrendered, honestly confessed their problems and voluntarily handed over the bribes.

The purpose of highlighting the voluntary surrender of corrupt officials and resulting lenient treatment in the reports is to encourage more officials with problems to confess voluntarily, the watchdogs said.