Beijing: China has fined more than 1,11,000 people under corruption charges in the first quarter of 2023 after they received nearly 776,000 petitions and reports, media reports said.

Among them 231,000 were simply accusations.

More than a lakh officials were fined by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervisory Commission.

Looking at the numbers, one might conclude that China is making an effort to combat corruption, but the reality is discouraging.

The nearly 50 million state employees were victims of the economic crisis as a result of the failure of its Covid-19 policy and the slowing of the economy, reports ANI quoting Directus.

With most of the state governments being in debt, life as an official in China is not as comfortable as it used to be, Directus reported as quoted by ANI.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tries its best to stamp out corruption in the form of theft of state assets, bribery, and graft.

However, a large reason for the survival of the state apparatus is corruption itself, with favours, special treatment and job perks being a huge reason for people to support and prop up the autocratic and harsh regime, reports ANI.

State officials compete fiercely in order to attract investment in the region and then resort to corruption in order to profit from it, in the form of fees to speed up access, extorting the very businesses that they wanted to invite in order to meet their work performance targets.

Maintaining such a precarious balance has led to the growth of the Chinese economy over the years.