China punished 592,000 officials for disciplinary violations in 2022

Beijing, Jan 13 (EFE).- China imposed punishments on 592,000 officials in 2022 for disciplinary violations, the Central Commission for Inspection and Discipline, the anti-corruption arm of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, said Friday on its official WeChat social media account.

Among those sanctioned are 53 people with positions “at the ministerial or provincial level,” the agency said.

Last year, former Chinese Justice Minister Fu Zhenghua received a suspended death sentence for accepting bribes following an investigation led by the powerful anti-corruption body.

Former Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Sun Lijun was also accused last year of accepting bribes and received the same sentence. Lijun was given a suspended death sentence, relatively frequent in the country in corruption cases, which will be commuted to life imprisonment if offenses aren’t repeated.

Among the cases that received the most attention in 2022 is also that of Tong Daochi, former head of the party in the island province of Hainan and who was assigned the same sentence as Sun and Fu after investigations carried out by the commission.

Corruption was recorded in the Central Commission for Inspection and Discipline itself: its former senior inspector Dong Hong received a suspended death sentence in January 2022 for accepting bribes.

After he came to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping began an anti-corruption campaign in which several senior Chinese officials have been convicted of accepting bribes worth millions.

The campaign has led to the punishment of millions of officials and exposed major corruption cases, but some critics have said it could also be used to end the political careers of some of Xi’s political rivals. EFE

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