China promotes transparency in corruption cases

China's top procuratorial authority has ordered the promotion of information transparency in the investigation and prosecution of senior officials' corruption cases and other duty-related crimes.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on Wednesday published a circular urging procuratorial agencies at all levels to make public information about major cases of suspected offenses by officials.

The move is expected to make information disclosure about such cases a regular practice instead of case-by-case discretion.

The public will be informed in a timely manner of cases such as suspected duty-related violations by provincial-level officials and those behind serious accidents or major food and drug safety scandals, according to the circular.

Information to be published should include the suspects' identities, the crimes they are suspected of, basic facts and latest developments in cases during investigation, arrest and prosecution.

Such information will be available in various forms, including text, statistics, photos and videos, it said.

However, the circular also stressed that information about state secrets or personal privacy shall not be disclosed.

The SPP said that starting in March this year, it launched microblog accounts on some major Chinese websites such as Sina.com and Xinhuanet.com.

To date, 6,700 pieces of information about prosecutors' work have been released by these accounts, attracting a total of 8.5 million followers and subscribers.