MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Chinese prosecutors pressed charges against 22 senior officials, including former ministers, last year as part of the Communist party’s anti-graft campaign, an official report said Sunday.
China's former state security chief Zhou Yongkang was among those prosecuted by the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), the state news agency Xinhua cited the SPP’s report as saying.
Further 41 officials of "ministerial level and above" had investigations launched against them in 2015, up from 28 the year before. In 2013, only eight senior officials were investigated for corruption, according to SPP data.
After assuming office in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a large-scale campaign against corruption, primarily targeting high-level officials in the Communist Party, the armed forces and state-run enterprises.