China's anti-corruption watchdog has said that 106,000 officials were found guilty of corruption in 2009, an increase of 2.5% on the year before.
The number of government officials caught embezzling more than one million yuan ($146,000; £91,000) jumped by 19% over the year.
The government says the increase is due to better supervision of the problem.
But corruption is consistently rated the number one concern by Chinese, ahead of pirated goods and pollution.
There is widespread anger at the ostentatious lifestyle enjoyed by some Communist Party officials, police chiefs and bosses of state-owned companies, says the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing.
With no independent oversight of the ruling communists, corruption has bloomed.
