ON THE SIDELINES of the current annual session of the National People's Congress, Wang Rulin, Party chief of North China's Shanxi province, revealed that a vice-mayor in the province embezzled more than 640 million yuan ($98 million), which was almost the total revenue of nine poverty-stricken counties last year. Beijing News on Monday questioned how such an enormous amount of money could be misappropriated:

Although details about the corrupt vice-mayor remain unclear, the considerable amount of money said to have been embezzled may be just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to corruption. Before the ongoing anti-corruption campaign, the abuses of power may have been even worse than one might imagine, as the province has witnessed some of China's worst corruption cases. The relations between local officials and businessmen have basically spun out of control.

In the past 17 months, the disciplinary authorities have punished 31,164 government officials after investigating 28,668 cases in the province. Thirty-four officials have been handed over to the judicial authorities to face criminal charges.