Corruption is especially widespread among officials with already high incomes and has a massive impact on earnings. While only seven per cent of officials proven to be corrupt would normally belong to the top one per cent of earners in urban China, the figure would rise to 91 per cent when considering illegal income. However, the far-reaching measures already taken by China with 3.7 million sanctions systematically inhibit corruption.

These are the findings of a study conducted by Germany's ZEW Mannheim with the City University of New York in the U.S. The study is the first of its kind to analyse the financial benefits of corruption for the individual perpetrators, drawing on data from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party.