Cao Jianming, Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China (SPP), delivers a report onthe SPP's work at the ongoing session of China's 12th National People'sCongress in Beijing, March 13, 2016. He revealed that 41 ex-officials atministerial level or above were subjected to formal investigations last year./Source from Xinhua News Agency

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By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - Since Chinese President Xi Jinping took control of the party in November 2012, China has been fully committed to its nationwide anti-corruption drive. We could say that Xi's anti-corruption war is taking place indiscriminately and intensively. This can be clearly seen as Xi has been always emphasizing that the corruption campaign should target both "tigers" and "flies", the terms assigned to different officials depending on their ranks and levels of corruption.

However, according to the March 14th report of Chinese newspaper Beijing Times, it has been revealed that "tigers" got more severe punishment for corruption rather than "flies". It was revealed that a total of whopping 41 officials at ministerial level or above were subject to formal investigations last year. Among them, 22 were prosecuted and were either punished or to be punished. The rest of them will likely to be prosecuted soon.

According to the report citing the annual report delivered by China's Procurator-General Cao Jianming at the ongoing session of the 12th National People's Congress on Sunday, the ex-officials subjected to formal investigations include Ling Jinhua, former vice chairman of top political advisory body CPPCC. Ling Jihua was former top aide to former Chinese President Hu Jintao and is one of the highest-ranking officials caught up in China's ongoing anti-corruption probe. Ling Jihua is expected to be punished additionally since his younger brother Ling Wancheng is revealed to have delivered Chinese nuclear secrets to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after he fled to the United States. Among the high-ranking officials who got punished is China's former security tsar Zhou Yongkang. He was sentenced to life in prison last year for accepting bribes and abusing of his authority.

At the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) held on Jan. 12, Chinese President Xi said that anti-corruption campaign should continue to cover all sectors and zero tolerance will be shown to violators. Therefore, China will be crack down on even more tigers and flies this year than ever. In particular, those corrupted high-ranking officials should be prepared for more harsh inspection.