China Intensifies Bribery Crackdown by Targeting the People Who Pay

What’s new: China’s top judicial and discipline authorities have ramped up crackdowns on both those taking and offering bribes, newly released work reports show. This follows an apparent shift in focus in September to target bribe payers with a plan to get them blacklisted, as authorities had largely targeted those accepting bribes previously.

In 2021, Chinese prosecutors, along with other authorities including the National Supervisory Commission, accused 9,083 people of accepting bribes and 2,689 people of offering bribes, up 21.5% year-on-year and 16.6% year-on-year, respectively, according to the work report (link in Chinese) published by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.