BEIJING - China's prosecuting authorities probed 53,043 officials for suspected corruption in the first 11 months of 2014, with 24 at or above ministerial levels, including Zhou Yongkang.

The total number was up 7 percent from the same period in 2013, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said at a meeting on Thursday, without saying how many of them were prosecuted.

They arrested or persuaded 664 duty-crime suspects that fled the country to return.

The SPP also said it would strengthen investigating officials involved in areas such as the major construction projects, land transfers and mineral resources exploitation.

The SPP also announced it would establish a new "general administration for the graft fight" in 2015, upgrading its anti-corruption bureau set up in 1995.