Corrupt officials charged in China

CHINA has punished 17,505 officials this year on corruption charges, and its top prosecutor has warned that the rule of law could be in danger, a government news agency said yesterday.

The city’s Communist Party secretary has been fired, a leading businessman is being questioned and news reports said two senior officials in charge of managing government-owned assets were also under investigation.

“These figures show that the country’s prosecutors are determined to root out corruption,” Wang Zhenchuan, from Xinhua News Agency quoted China’s deputy chief prosecutor as saying.

Yesterday, the Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po said that Ling Baoheng, chief of Shanghai’s State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and Wu Hongmei, a vice director for the commission, were being held for investigation.

Reports said the two were implicated in a scandal over alleged illicit investments of city pensions and building projects such as the Shanghai Formula One track.

Officials have already been jailed, and some executed, for offences ranging from stealing public money to selling construction and commercial licences, and demanding bribes in exchange for promotions.

The latest figure brings the number of corrupt officials punished since 2003 to 67,505, Xinhua said.