Commercial bribery is considered a common practice in China, with a recent survey finding that most people believe officials take bribes in return for facilitating business deals.

Nine-four percent of the interviewees claimed that businesspeople often reward officials with commissions, luxurious gifts or invite them to extravagant dinners, according to a survey released by the China Youth Daily.

The survey jointly conducted by the Chinese Cadres Tribune, a monthly published by the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Tianjin-based Nankai University, said that 60 percent of the respondees were skeptical about the government's ability to stamp out corruption in the commercial arena.

Interviewees claimed that project tendering and construction, land transfers, the trading of state-owned properties, drug and medical apparatus purchase and government procurement involve the most blatant briberies.

"These are all fields that officials can easily meddle in and fields close to the public interest," said the survey.

It asserted that officials in charge of licensing, qualification authentication, supervision and other market management duties are regular bribe seekers.

Their actions had fostered commercial bribery, which is now an unwritten rule of business, it said.

Only 9 percent considered it possible to root out commercial bribery, but about 30 percent believed the government could effectively curb corruption. However, more than 60 percent felt it was a losing battle.

It proves that China still has a long way to go in its fight against graft, said the survey.

Earlier statistics show that China has punished a total of 416 civil servants after a national campaign against commercial bribery was launched in the middle of last year.

Source: Xinhua