China's top legislature on Saturday adopted an amendment to the Criminal Law so that criminals convicted on serious corruption charges who have received a two-year suspended death sentence will face life imprisonment after the two years.

The amendment, voted on by lawmakers at the end of a bimonthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, aims to "safeguard judicial fairness" and prevent "the most corrupt criminals from serving shorter prison terms through commutation," according to the NPC Law Committee. It targets officials who illegally seek commutation, parole or non-prison sentences.

Such irregularities have been common. Hu Jianxue, a former Party chief from the city of Tai'an, Shandong Province, was sentenced to prison and approved for medical parole for a year, but he remained out of prison for seven years. Shi Baochun, a former official of the city of Yangshuo in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for graft, but he bribed officials to avoid serving the sentence.

"The price of corruption has just become higher," said Gao Bo of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Life imprisonment for corrupt officials demonstrates China's determination to fight graft, said Prof. Huang Jingping of Renmin University of China.

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