China's President Xi Jinping attends a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing on November 18, 2013. (File photo)
Enforcing an anti-graft drive launched by President Xi Jinping, China punished 1.82 lakh officials for corruption in 2013 amid speculation that son of a retired top ruling Communist Party leader has been detained on graft charges.
Last year, the Communist Party of China's discipline inspection agencies punished about 1.82 lakh officials nationwide, 13.3 per cent more than in 2012, Huang Shuxian, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) told media here on Friday.
This included eight high-profile officials, he said, adding that 23 other top rank officials are still under investigation.
Of the 1.82 lakhs officials, about 1.50 lakhs were subject to party discipline punishment and 48,900 were subject to administrative punishment, he said.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Friday that the elder son of retired senior leader Zhou Yongkang is under formal detention and the family has sought lawyers for his defence.
Zhou was the member of the nine-member Standing Committee of the CPC which ruled the country under the leadership of former President Hu Jintao.
Reports say that Zhou himself would be arrested as investigations against him neared completion.
If arrested, he would be the first highest-level retired CPC official to be prosecuted in China in recent years, breaking away from the tradition of providing immunity to the retired leaders from prosecution.
Xi has emerged as a powerful leader holding the troika of high offices - President of the country, General Secretary of the CPC and Chief of the military.
He has made the campaign against corruption his main plank ever since he took over power last year, saying that party's hold on the country would collapse if graft continued unchecked.
Besides handing over a life sentence to disgraced CPC leader Bo Xilai, several top leaders, including the former Railway Minister Liu Zhijun was handed down punishments ranging from suspended death sentences to life imprisonments.
"As the central leadership asked, discipline inspection agencies have put anti-corruption as a priority and worked to bring down both 'tigers' and 'flies'," Huang said.
Last year, the CCDI reorganised itself to improve efficiency and put more human resources into supervision and case investigation, he said.
"We are working hard to improve the efficiency and quality of our investigations," Huang said.
Last year, the agencies opened about 172,000 cases and closed 173,000 (including those opened in previous years). The figures were 11.2 per cent and 12.7 per cent more than in 2012 respectively.
There were two more major changes of the missions of discipline agencies in 2013.
While fighting corruption, the CCDI also targeted breach of duty by officials.
Over 21,000 officials were held responsible for failing in their duties last year in major workplace accidents and serious pollution incidents.