43,000 abuse-of-power suspects under investigation

Chinese prosecutors from January to November launched investigations into 31,616 abuse-of-power criminal cases involving 43,265 suspects, according to figures provided at Thursday's national meeting of procurators.

Of those investigated for abuse of power, 2,475 are government officials at the county-level or above.

Statistics show prosecutors across China in the first 11 months this year approved the arrests of a total of 837,736 criminal suspects and prosecuted nearly 1.07 million people.

The country's prosecutors so far this year have approved the arrests of 1,801 criminal suspects for their roles in the manufacture and sale of poisonous or harmful food products.

A total of 120 government employees have also been investigated for food-related graft and dereliction of duty this year.

A press release issued by the meeting said procuratorial organs should continue a reform to improve arrest and interrogation procedures for suspects involved in duty crimes.

Procuratorial organs should also carry out the regulation to establish a synchronized video and audio records system for the entire process of interrogating all duty crime suspects, it said.

Procuratorial organs should also assist the Supreme People's Court in accelerating a reform to promote more judicial supervision on the review of death penalties.