Vows to clean up judiciary

Chief Justice Wang Shengjun said courts will take actions on judicial corruption to prevent abuse of judicial power this year after Huang Songyou, former vice president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), was jailed for life in January for taking bribes and embezzlement.

Huang was convicted of taking more than 3.9 million yuan (about 574,000 U.S. dollars) of bribes from 2005 to 2008.

Wang said nearly 800 court officials were punished for violating laws last year.

Courts at all levels should "learn a lesson" from the case of Huang to pinpoint rooted problems on the management of judges and supervision of power, he said.

Prosecutor-General Cao said the authority will "never relax its efforts" in the crackdown on judicial corruption.

An extensive anti-gang crackdown in southwestern Chongqing municipality since last year revealed a grave situation of judicial corruption. About 200 judicial and public security officials in the city have been found to be implicated.

Wen Qiang, former deputy police chief and head of the justice bureau of Chongqing, stood trial last month. He was accused of raping, taking more than 15 million yuan of bribes to protect criminal gangs, and possessing a huge amount of unexplainable assets.