The number of commercial corruption cases before Chinese courts rose steeply
to 5,662 in the first nine months despite harsher penalties, according to the
Supreme People's Court (SPC).
Xiong Xuanguo, vice president of the SPC,
said courts at all levels dealt with 5,429 commercial bribery cases involving
civil servants during the first three quarters, up 10.43 percent from the same
time last year.
The cases involved public officials charged with
accepting bribes from commercial organizations in return for official influence
or services.
The remaining 233 cases involved company employees
receiving handouts from other companies in return for business favors, up 3.51
percent from the same period last year, he said.
"We have intensified
penalties for commercial corruption this year. About 21 percent of criminals
convicted in such cases were jailed for periods of more than five years," said
Xiong.
Wang Zhenchuan, Deputy Procurator-General with the Supreme
People's Procuratorate, said prosecutors investigated more than 9,000 commercial
corruption cases during the first nine months.
The cases mainly occurred
in the fields of construction, land acquisition, ownership transfers of
state-owned enterprises, government procurement, medicine and medical appliances
trade, banking and securities and futures.
Premier Wen Jiabao early in
the year pledged to give priority to tackling commercial corruption to resolve
persistent problems that have infringed upon the public interests and to
strengthen the management of public servants.
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