300,000 Chinese officials ‘punished for corruption’ last year: By Neil Connor in The Telegraph, Mar 7, 2015

Beijing: China punished almost 300,000 officials for graft last year as President Xi Jinping continued to wage a high-profile war against corruption.
Among those ensnared by the wide-ranging crackdown were 200,000 who were given “light disciplinary punishments” and another 82,000 who were handed “severe disciplinary punishments and major demotions”.
Ten “centrally appointed and administered officials” were given “drastic demotions” for serious violations against the Communist Party’s code of conduct, according to the report from Xinhua.
The code has been identified by the party’s graft watchdog as a means to “spot problems earlier and prevent officials from slipping into corruption”, the state news agency said.
The figures cited China’s top discipline watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Many Chinese officials are this week meeting in Beijing for a high-level political gathering of the country’s rubber stamp parliament – the National People’s Congress (NPC).
The corruption crackdown has been one of President Xi’s key policies, although critics have questioned its lack of transparency and also claim it is more a tool to ensure potential rivals are removed from key positions.
The CCDI rarely gives details on the evidence it uses when it publishes accounts of those ensnared in the graft crackdown, but there are daily reports in China on allegations of bribery and abuse of power among officials.
Corruption is a major source of anger in China and Mr Xi has vowed to tackle high level ‘tigers’ and low level ‘flies’.
Former Chinese security chief Zhou Yongkang last year became the highest ranking former official to be placed on trial for corruption in decades when he was sentenced to life in prison at a secret trial. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/12185584/300000-Chinese-officials-punished-for-corruption-last-year.html