Stern eye cast on low-level corruption

Jail sentences were given to 197 officials at grassroots levels who were involved in 175 corruption cases over the past five years, prosecutors in Shanghai said on Thursday.

Those convicted were civil servants in various departments and towns, along with some heads of State-owned enterprises and public institutions.

Many of the corruption cases involved tax-related issues, such as verifications of tax amounts, management of invoices, tax collection in housing and estate transactions. They also involved land requisitions, displacement and resettlement and attracting investment to rural areas, according to prosecutors.