A gavel in a court. [Photo/IC]

The annual work report of the Supreme People's Court said that 54,249 officials at all levels were investigated for duty-related offenses last year, including 8,217 who were accused of taking bribes, of whom 2,495 were punished. Beijing Times commented on Monday:

China's criminal law tends to impose harsher punishments on officials who take bribes than those who offer the bribes. According to statistics, only about 20 percent of bribery cases involved the persons who offered bribes.

To some extent, keeping a tighter rein on the bribe-takers can expedite the country's anti-graft campaign, but allowing some who have given bribes to walk away with impunity deals a heavy blow to the spirit of the law in the long run.

That explains why the ninth amendment to the Criminal Law, which took effect on Nov 1, only exempts or alleviates the punishments for those guilty of offering bribes for minor offenses who play a key role in solving a major criminal case. The harsher exemption criteria indicate the country is strengthening its judicial efforts to fight corruption.

Of course, that less than 2,500 people who gave bribes received their due punishments does not guarantee that justice has been done in all cases involving bribery. The Chinese justice system tried 34,000 cases of corruption in 2015, involving 49,000 suspects (including some former high-ranking officials), with a considerable number of them being convicted of taking bribes, meaning that there are still a lot of people who offered bribes still at large.

It is fair to say, though, that punishing more than 2,000 people for giving bribes is a promising start for China's promotion of anti-corruption mechanism, in which all parties involved in bribery are held accountable.