In the news: Corruption cases continue to rise, the NPC updates the civil code, and investors seek VIE clarity after the Ambow case

Corruption cases increase more than 30%

The number of corruption cases heard by Chinese courts jumped by about a third last year, according to an annual report from the nation's chief justice. The country's top prosecutor vowed that there would be zero tolerance and no letup in China's anti-graft campaign, which has been enforced with unprecedented vigor since President Xi Jinping took office in 2012. The report said courts heard 45,000 corruption cases involving 63,000 people last year. The campaign has been far-reaching, with at least one top official in each of China's 31 provinces being ensnared in one corruption scandal or the other. A record number of high-ranking officials were convicted in 2016, with 28 former provincial and ministerial-level officials being sentenced to imprisonment or even death. The drive has affected sales at luxury stores in China, and hit top marque car brands and even gambling revenue in the former Portuguese territory of Macau. There have been whispers, however, that the president may have used corruption charges to sideline political rivals—a notion that Xi himself appears to have addressed in October with remarks that the Communist Party's credibility  has been undermined by “political conspiracies” among certain members and their acts of bribery. While the allegations remain to be proven, the anti-corruption momentum looks unlikely to falter anytime soon.  

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