China prosecutors investigate 140,000 suspects in anti-graft drive

BEIJING - Prosecutors handled 110,000 corruption cases, involving 140,000 suspects, from the beginning of 2013 until this August, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

"Our country has been taking decisive anti-corruption measures since 2013 and made notable achievements in handling corruption cases," said SPP Vice President Sun Qian on Monday at a press conference.

A sweeping campaign against corruption and extravagance was launched after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in late 2012 when the new leadership headed by Xi Jinping vowed to crack down on corruption.

The campaign is still going strong as discipline inspections routinely uncover misbehaving officials at various levels and pass their cases to judicial organs.

According to Sun, an increasing number of senior officials are among the judicial targets. In 2013, eight officials at or above the provincial or ministerial level were under judicial investigation. Last year, the number rose to 28, while the first eight months of 2015 have already seen the fall of 26.

Among them were Zhou Yongkang, former Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, who was sentenced to life in prison for graft in June, and Ling Jihua, a former senior political advisor who is still under prosecutors' investigation.