China targets middlemen in renewed crackdown on ‘hidden’ corruption

China's top judicial bodies, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, have released a significant joint judicial interpretation aimed at dismantling complex corruption networks. The guidance specifically targets intermediaries—the brokers and facilitators who create transactional layers between bribe-givers and recipients—in an effort to combat what authorities term 'new and hidden forms of corruption.' By refining the legal criteria, the interpretation mandates that all participants in a corruption chain, not just the primary parties, can be held criminally liable. This move is designed to deter these middlemen and provide prosecutors and judges across the country with a standardized framework for handling such cases more accurately and efficiently.

The interpretation establishes clear financial thresholds for prosecution. It states that if a bribe to an individual exceeds 100,000 yuan (approximately US$14,640), or a bribe to an organization exceeds 500,000 yuan, the intermediary's actions constitute a 'serious offence.' The penalties for this are severe, including imprisonment of up to three years and additional fines. This forms a key part of a broader, ongoing anti-corruption campaign in China that seeks to root out graft that uses complex, layered transactions to obscure the direct exchange of money and influence. The directive signals a strategic shift to attack the enablers and operational infrastructure of corruption, not just its most visible figures.