China focus: 180,000 officials disciplined in 2013

The Communist Party of China's discipline watchdog closed graft investigations into eight high-profile officials and handed over their cases to prosecutors in 2013, said a senior discipline inspector here on Friday. The officials were Zhou Zhenhong, Liu Tienan, Ni Fake, Wang Suyi, Li Daqiu, Tong Mingqian, Yang Kun and Qi Pingjing, said Huang Shuxian, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and minister of supervision, at a press conference. Five of them were senior provincial officials, two were senior officials of central government departments while one was senior executive of a state bank. They were among 31 high-profile officials investigated by the CCDI last year and the remaining 23 are still under investigation, including Jiang Jiemin, former head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and Li Dongsheng, former vice minister of public security, Huang said. Last year, the Communist Party of China's discipline inspection agencies punished about 182,000 officials nationwide, 13.3 percent more than in 2012, according to Huang. Among them, about 150,000 were subject to Party discipline punishment and 48,900 were subject to administrative punishment. After taking the helm of the CPC in November 2012 and later as the country's top leader in March 2013, Xi Jinping vowed to fight corruption and harmful work styles,