572 officials punished in inspection of gang crime crackdown

A total of 572 officials have been punished during Chinese central authorities' first round of inspection of a national crackdown on gang crimes.

Ten inspection teams have been sent to 10 provincial-level regions in China to carry out the inspection that lasted one month.

With the inspection teams' work, a total of 1,791 cases of corruption related to gang and organized crimes as well as the "protective umbrellas" behind such crimes have been put under investigation, according to statistics from the office of the leading group of the inspection.

Also, during the inspection period, the 10 inspected regions have busted 96 gangs and assets worth of over 5 billion yuan ($726 million) related to such crimes have been sealed or seized.

The second and third rounds of inspection are scheduled to be carried out next year so that all provincial-level regions will be inspected.