China's top prosecutor says 78,000 people were charged with corruption over the five-year period until 2022.

Procurator-general Zhang Jun announced the figure at the National People's Congress on Tuesday.

The number is much lower than the figure during President Xi Jinping's first five-year term until 2017, when more than 250,000 people were prosecuted.

But corruption apparently remains widespread despite the Xi administration's anti-graft campaign.

Zhang also reported that the number of criminal cases that disrupted market and economic order was up more than 30 percent from the previous five-year period.

He indicated that prosecutors will protect the interests of investors and severely punish offenders.

Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court Zhou Qiang also told the congress that about 139,000 people were found guilty of corruption in the five-year period from 2018 to 2022.

Zhou stressed that those who violate the interests of the public will be punished.