Photo: VCG

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on Saturday at its official website that 69 officials at provincial- and ministerial-level or above were punished in 2025.
 
Among the 4.168 million petition and complaint submissions in 2025, 1.282 million were categorized as whistleblower complaints. Authorities reviewed 2.63 million leads and opened 1.012 million formal investigations, including probes into 115 officials at the provincial- and ministerial-level or above, 5,016 at the bureau director-level, 41,000 at the county-level, and 137,000 at the township-level. 

The disciplinary inspection and supervision authorities nationwide punished 983,000 individuals, including 727,000 who received Party disciplinary punishment. 

In 2025, the disciplinary inspection authorities conducted four distinct forms of oversight covering disciplinary compliance in 1.98 million cases, with nearly half handled through criticism and education with the first form.

The Party has upheld the principles that Party discipline should be even more stringent than the law and that discipline and law enforcement efforts should go hand in hand. It has conducted four distinct forms of oversight covering disciplinary compliance, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

The four forms are: 1) criticism and self-criticism activities and oral and written inquiries, which are to be conducted regularly to ensure that those who have committed minor misconduct are made to "redden and sweat"; 2) light penalties and minor organizational adjustments to official positions, which are to be applied in the majority of cases; 3) heavy penalties and major adjustments to official positions, which are to be applied in a small number of cases; and 4) investigation and prosecution, which are to be undertaken in a very small number of cases involving serious violations of discipline and suspected criminal activity.

The country has consistently upheld the principle of cracking down on both bribe-givers and bribe-takers Investigation also showed 33,000 people were investigated because of offering bribes, and 4,306 of them were transferred to the procuratorial organs, according to the watchdog.

Global Times