China tackled 6,972 commercial bribery cases from August 2005 to June 2006 which involved 1.963 billion yuan of illicit money.

The information was released on Monday by Li Yufu, deputy director of the leading group on combating commercial bribery, under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

He said bribery existed in construction, land acquisition, ownership transfer of state-owned enterprises, government procurement, the purchase and sale of medicines, resources development, bank lending, trade in securities and futures, commercial insurance, publishing, telecommunications, electricity, sports and environmental protection.

Of the nearly 7,000 commercial bribery cases 1,603 were related to state workers which was 23 percent of the total and involved 508 million yuan of illicit money.

He added that commercial bribery was still rampant in certain industries. Departments concerned should intensify their efforts to bust those involved in major commercial bribery cases and severely punish them so as to curb the growing problem.

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2006)