A total of 98 ministerial-level leaders have been punished by the Communist Party of China (CPC) for corruption and other violations from October 1997 to September 2002, the Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.

The number of officials punished was disclosed in the full text of the working report of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which was adopted by the 16th National Congress of the CPC last week.

According to the report, more than 840,000 people at various levels were punished for corruption and other transgressions in the past five years.

Among them, 28,996 were at the county-level and 2,422 were department-level officials in provincial governments or ministries.

(China Daily November 20, 2002)