China dealt with 10,992 commercial bribery cases involving 3.29
billion yuan (US$411 million) between August 2005 and September
2006, said a senior official with the Communist Party of China's
(CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
"A total of 2,537 cases, which account for 23.1 percent of the
total, involve civil servants," said He Yong, deputy secretary of
the commission and head of the central government's anti-commercial
bribery group.
He said 68 prefecture-level and 551 county-level government
officials were found to be involved in cases in a campaign targeted
at commercial bribery starting from last August.
"With fast economic growth, commercial bribery in various forms
has become a big evil in China's economy and aroused intense public
concern," He said.
He said the campaign to crack down on commercial bribery had
focused on six major fields, including construction projects, land
purchase, property transactions, medicine buying and selling,
government procurement and exploitation of natural resources.
More attention will be paid to nine other fields, including bank
loans, securities and futures, business insurance, publications,
sports, telecommunications, electricity, quality control and
environmental protection.
He said the efforts to crack down on commercial bribery have
achieved remarkable results, but pointed out there is still a long
way to go.
"More severe punishments will be imposed on civil servants
involved in commercial bribery and the government is to strengthen
supervision," said He.
He said the government wants the public to report more
commercial bribery cases.
"By the end of this year, the central government's
anti-commercial bribery group will hold another press conference to
announce more prosecuted cases," He said.
Commercial bribery usually refers to bribes from companies and
often involves a company paying money to government officials to
gain special advantages.
"Commercial bribery obstructs healthy economic development and
causes corruption among officials, reducing people's trust in the
government," He said.
"In addition, production costs rise and social morals are
damaged."
(China Daily December 1, 2006)