One of China's senior corruption investigators has ordered police to "intensify" probes into commercial corruption in order to discourage bribery in business.

Zheng Shaodong, director of the economic crime investigation bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, said on Thursday that corruption commonly occurred in the fields of construction, land acquisition, pharmaceutical sales, government procurement, resource development, securities and futures, bank loans, energy, commercial insurance, telecommunications and environmental protection.

"The police must intensify corruption investigations in these fields, so as to crack major commercial cases quickly and curb the high frequency of bribery," he told a video conference of law enforcement officials.

Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security show that since 2000, police have recorded 2,549 cases concerning company employees receiving bribes and 564 cases of company employees offering bribes.

Source: Xinhua