Prosecution departments in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, last year handled a total of 316 cases involving officials' corruption and abuse of power, and punished 84 officials at or above county level.
In 2002, the prosecutors in Guangzhou retrieved and recovered misused money and goods worth over 87 million yuan (about 10.5 million US dollars).
Most of the cases were related to graft, embezzling public money and taking bribes, sources said.
Li Yuanjiang, former head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guangzhou Municipal Committee, and He Xiangqin, former editor-in-chief of the Guangzhou Daily, are among the punished officials.
(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2003)
