China reaffirms commitment to intensify fight against bribes and corruption

China's top judicial authorities have reaffirmed to harshly penalize bribe-givers in order to strengthen the fight against corruption with "zero-tolerance" and implement the amended Criminal Law.

The reaffirmation was made by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Thursday through the disclosure of eight influential cases involving bribe-givers.

Under the law, which took effect on March 1, the combat against bribe-givers has been required to be intensified, especially those offering bribes repeatedly and to multiple people or parties involved in major national projects.

One disclosed case showed that a defendant, surnamed Yang from Mianyang, Sichuan province, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, along with a fine of 200,000 yuan ($27,678) for offering bribes to officials in local public security departments and governments several times from 2004 to 2018.

Yang gave the bribes because he organized gangsters and wanted the officials to help cover up his offenses, the top court said, adding that the amount of bribes he offered was over 1 million yuan.

While being punished for bribery, Yang was also convicted of organized crimes, so he eventually received a 25-year prison term with confiscation of all of his personal assets.

"It's a typical case in which the defendant repeatedly offered bribes to multiple people," the top court said. "It has also shown the judicial determination and effort to eradicate the breeding ground for corruption and mafia."

The other disclosed cases included those offering a huge amount of bribes for getting a promotion in work as well as people giving bribes to staff members engaged in major fields, such as environment, social insurance and healthcare, which are required to be severely punished in line with the law.