16,000 indicted on duty-related criminal charges from Jan-Nov 2023

In the first 11 months of 2023, Chinese procuratorates indicted 16,000 suspects on charges of duty-related crimes, according to a senior prosecutor on Friday.

The indicted suspects included 24 former officials registered with and supervised by the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said Shi Weizhong, a senior official with the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

In 2023, the efforts of Chinese procuratorial agencies in combating corruption featured strict investigation and punishment of both those accused of taking bribes and those accused of offering bribes, Shi said.

Between January and November last year, procuratorates nationwide have lodged accusations against 2,306 people suspected of offering bribes, marking an 18.1 percent increase from the same period in the previous year.

Procuratorates are also deepening their anti-corruption work in key fields such as the medical, financial and food and grain sectors.

In the first 11 months of last year, about 500 people from the medical sector have been indicted for duty-related crimes. More than 300 from the financial sector as well as over 350 from the grain sector were sued over corruption-related charges, according to Shi.

The prosecutor also noted that the SPP had provided guidance for local procuratorial agencies in Hubei Province in handling a series of high-profile corruption cases involving the football sector, including the indictment of Li Tie, former head coach of China's national men's football team.

Moreover, intensified efforts have been made to investigate and punish corruption-related money laundering violations, Shi said.

The procuratorial authorities also worked vigorously in hunting down corrupt fugitives and retrieving their illegal gains as well as in cross-border anti-corruption governance.

In order to address the root causes of corruption, procuratorates across the country have shared over 1,900 procuratorial suggestions based on their analysis and research to other departments, Shi said.