China’s top prosecutorial authority reported a sharp rise in corruption prosecutions in 2025, a trend observers say highlights the persistence of systemic corruption despite more than a decade of anti-corruption campaigns by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

According to the 2025 work report released by China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate on March 10, about 29,000 people were prosecuted with duty-related corruption in 2025, including 44 officials at the provincial or ministerial level.

The figure represents a significant increase from about 24,000 prosecutions in 2024, when 34 senior officials at the same rank were charged. The roughly 20 percent increase suggests that both lower-level and senior officials are increasingly being targeted in corruption investigations.

Due to the Chinese authorities’ past record of underreporting and covering up information, the true scale of corruption remains unknown.

The Epoch Times spoke to China-based insiders and observers who requested anonymity or to be published only by their surnames due to fears of reprisal.

A retired insider from within the CCP told The Epoch Times that the rising numbers stand in stark contrast to the CCP’s repeated claims that its anti-corruption campaign has achieved “overwhelming victory.”

“The increasing prosecution figures themselves are the most biting irony to those claims,” the insider said. “This is not evidence of success—it is proof of structural corruption within the bureaucratic system.

“In a system lacking checks and balances, where the judiciary functions as an instrument of the ruling party, corruption has effectively become part of the regime’s DNA.”

According to the insider, the continued persistence and growth of corruption after more than a decade of anti-corruption efforts indicate that the system has become caught in a self-sustaining cycle.

“The number of corruption cases has not declined but increased, suggesting the system is trapped in a vicious cycle—cracking down on corruption only to see more of it emerge,” the insider said.

Corruption in Public Sectors

The report shows corruption remains particularly concentrated in sectors that control large pools of state resources.

In 2025, 9,174 public officials were prosecuted for duty-related crimes in key sectors, including finance, state-owned enterprises, energy, and infrastructure construction. These industries manage vast public funds and state assets and have long been identified by Beijing as priority targets in anti-corruption drives.

However, insiders say the concentration of corruption in these sectors reflects deeper structural problems.

Under China’s “Party-led economy,” financial institutions and state enterprises operate under strong political control while facing limited independent oversight, the retired insider said.

“What the authorities call corruption in ‘key sectors’ is essentially the direct consequence of absolute political power controlling economic resources,” he said.

Without independent auditing institutions or a free press to monitor the authorities’ decisions, he added, large infrastructure projects, loans, and state investments often become channels for power-for-profit exchanges between officials and business interests.

The work report also points to growing corruption in areas directly affecting ordinary citizens.

In 2025, 7,609 cases of duty-related crimes were linked to sectors such as rural revitalization programs, public health care, elderly services, and funeral management.

These funds are intended to support basic social welfare programs but have increasingly become targets for embezzlement by local officials.

A Chinese public-interest advocate told The Epoch Times that the regime often describes such cases as corruption occurring “around the masses,” a phrase frequently used in official anti-corruption rhetoric.

However, the advocate argued the phenomenon reflects deeper problems in grassroots governance.

“This is not simply a matter of individual greed among local officials,” the advocate said. “It represents systemic plundering of public survival resources.

“When officials can freely divert pension funds, poverty relief subsidies, and medical allocations, it shows the system has lost its most basic governing ethics.”

Institutionalized Bribery and Injustice

The work report also notes that 3,292 individuals were prosecuted for offering bribes, many of them linked to businesses seeking access to projects, land quotas, bank loans, or regulatory approvals.

Such exchanges between officials and companies have increasingly become a routine feature of China’s economic environment, some observers say.

A China-based attorney surnamed Wang told The Epoch Times that the phenomenon is a form of “institutionalized extortion” rooted in the state’s control over resource allocation.

“In a system where the CCP controls everything, and officials distribute resources through opaque decisions, companies cannot survive without cultivating political connections or paying bribes,” the attorney said.

“This is not primarily a moral failure of individual entrepreneurs. It is a corruption black market created by the system itself.”

As long as the CCP maintains monopoly control over key economic resources, the attorney stated, the practice of converting political power into financial gain is unlikely to disappear.

“The ultimate cost is always borne by ordinary citizens,” the attorney added.

The report also highlights growing issues within China’s own law enforcement and judicial institutions.

Prosecutors reported a notable rise in cases involving justice officials accused of abusing power, bending the law for personal benefit, or interfering with legal proceedings.

The attorney said the phenomenon undermines the credibility of Beijing’s long-promoted goal of “governing the country according to law.”

“When those responsible for enforcing the law themselves become offenders, the concept of rule of law becomes little more than political theater,” the attorney said.

Expanded Discipline Campaigns 

Separate data released on Jan. 19 by China’s top disciplinary body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, show that more than 980,000 officials were punished in 2025, up from roughly 890,000 in 2024.

Despite the scale of the campaign, the CCP says anti-corruption efforts will continue to intensify, particularly in finance, state enterprises, and the energy sector, while targeting what officials call new and hidden forms of corruption.

However, the insiders and observers argue that without independent courts, media oversight, and institutional checks on political power, anti-corruption campaigns are unlikely to address the root causes of corruption.

When law enforcement institutions themselves become entangled in corruption, they say, the legal system risks becoming a tool for suppressing political rivals and extracting economic benefits—further eroding public trust.

Wang Xin contributed to this report.