Photo: CFP

China has dealt with more than 36,000 corruption-related cases impacting the public interest in the first half of 2023, with more than 52,000 individuals receiving criticism, education, assistance, or punishment, China's highest supervisory and anti-corruption authority announced on Monday.

Discipline inspection and supervisory authorities at all levels have consistently strengthened their inspection covering the implementation of policies supporting the public interest while punishing acts of embezzlement, misappropriation, false reporting and extortion, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the National Commission of Supervision.

The top anti-graft watchdog vowed to eliminate corruption at the grassroots level in areas such as employment and entrepreneurship, education and healthcare, pensions and social security, ecological and environmental protection, workplace safety, food and drug safety, law enforcement, and judicial fields. 

The top anti-corruption authority emphasized the need to strengthen frontline research and closely monitor prominent issues which impact people's livelihoods to address public concerns, giving the example of solving the corruption problem in handing out subsidies to villagers in the city of Baoshan of Southwest China's Yunnan Province and providing financial relief to low income people in the city of Longyan in East China's Fujian Province.

Anti-corruption authorities in East China's Zhejiang Province and Southwest China's Guizhou Province have made full use of big data to deepen grassroots governance of public interest issues. On an updated online supervision platform, the public can submit requests and understand how cases are processed. 
As China highlighted dealing with corruption as it related to public interest, the National Health Commission launched a one-year campaign to crack down on corruption in the healthcare sector across the country earlier in August, focusing on a "key few" in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure high-quality development of the country's medical and healthcare sector.