Chinese officials admit to graft
Top official, Zheng Xiaoyu, was executed for corruption last
month
Almost 1,800 officials confessed to corruption in June, a Chinese
Communist Party watchdog has announced.
The officials were taking advantage of a month-long leniency offer
that began on 30 May, the Central Commission for Discipline
Inspection (CCDI) said.
Over the month, 1,790 people confessed to corruption totalling
77.89m yuan ($10.2m, £5m), a spokesman said.
China has been working hard to tackle official corruption, which
has become a major trigger for public discontent.
"Some of the officials have corrected their mistakes and some are
still under investigation, since we need to check whether they have
confessed all their wrongdoings," CCDI spokesman Gan Yisheng
said.
No details were given of what penalties the officials who confessed
might face, Xinhua news agency said.
But Mr Gan said corrupt officials who had not confessed would face
severe punishment, the agency reported.
Public anger
Corruption is one of the Communist Party's biggest problems and the
thing that ordinary people criticise most bitterly, says the BBC's
James Reynolds in Beijing.
Chinese gamers have embraced a game that tackles corrupt
officials
He says they complain about officials with gold watches, driving
around in black Mercedes, getting fat on bribes and free lunches
and handing out all the best jobs to their friends and
family.
Now, our correspondent says, Chinese President Hu Jintao wants to
show that he is taking action, particularly with the party's key
five-yearly congress looming.
Last week, the Communist Party's former leader in Shanghai, Chen
Liangyu, was expelled from the party, and may now face charges,
after he was linked to a pensions fund scandal that has also
implicated other senior officials.
His expulsion follows the execution last month of Zheng Xiaoyu, the
former head of the country's food and drug watchdog who was
convicted of taking bribes to approve products.
But corruption is widespread, affecting local and provincial
administrations, as well as the central government.
The popularity of an online game that allows players to eradicate
corrupt officials illustrates the depth of feeling among ordinary
people over the issue of graft.
The game, entitled "Incorruptible Fighter", was launched just over
a week ago.
Since then, it has been downloaded more then 100,000 times and is
in such demand that its website has crashed, state media
reported.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6929005.stm