China to prosecute 5 senior officials for bribery

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING

China’s top prosecutor revealed Friday that lawsuits have been filed against five senior officials accused of accepting bribes.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate said in a statement that the suspects included Qiu He, former deputy chief of southwest Yunnan’s Provincial Committee of Communist Party of China, and Wu Changshun, vice chairman of the political advisory body of the northern port city of Tianjin.

Qiu is accused of accepting bribes in exchange for benefits, and Wu -- who also previously served as Tianjin’s police chief -- of embezzlement, abuse of power and accepting bribes, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Among the other suspects are Yang Weize, former Party chief of east Jiangsu provincial capital Nanjing, and Si Xinliang, former deputy chief of the political advisory body of eastern Zhejiang province.

They and Xiao Tian, former deputy director of China's General Administration of Sport, have been charged with bribery.

All five have been dismissed from their official posts and expelled from the Party.

Since President Xi Jinping launched a wide-reaching crackdown on corruption among officials in 2013, tens of thousands of suspects -- including dozens of high-profile Party figures -- have been investigated.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced in March that almost 300,000 officials had been penalized last year under the drive.