It appears Chinese President Xi Jinping has a difficult task ahead in his crackdown on corruption with new research indicating senior officials are highly likely to be involved in bribery.
China's Defense Minister Li Shangfu was the latest official to be axed with speculation mounting that he was taking kickbacks.
New research shows the scale of corruption in the country – a paper published in the journal Management Science estimates a significant number of government officials collect cash from unofficial avenues.
The report authors found the more senior the official the more likely they are to take under-the-table payments.
Data found the average corrupt low-level civil servant takes 83 per cent of their salary in bribes, while the average corrupt government department head collected an extra 424 per cent.
