Over 800 punished in 2015 under China's anti-corruption campaign

Beijing: Over 800 individuals and 928 companies with bribery records were punished in China last year under President Xi Jinping's campaign against corruption in the Communist nation.Last year, procuratorates across China accepted more than 3.6 million bribery-related inquiries, up 62.4 per cent, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said on Thursday.In all 817 individuals were punished, it said.[caption id="attachment_2682974" align="alignleft" width="380"] President Xi Jinping. Ibnlive[/caption]According to the SPP, among those who made the inquiries, 91 per cent were private enterprises, and over 2.7 million of all inquiries were related to bidding.The SPP has joined with several ministries to deter bribery in bidding and construction projects by requesting restrictive measures be taken against convicted bribers.Individuals and companies are likely to be disqualified for bidding on government projects or even forbidden from operating if convicts are found to be involved, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.Besides large number of officials, a number of high level leaders including the former national security chief, Zhou Yongkang and high level military officials were prosecuted and jailed in the anti-graft drive launched by Xi.Since Xi took over as president and Party chief in 2013, thousands of officials have been punished in massiveanti-corruption campaign.PTI