Five senior officials have been prosecuted for alleged bribery, China's top prosecuting body said on Friday.

The five include Qiu He, former deputy head of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, who is charged with taking bribes by making use of his position to help others gain benefits, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said.

Yang Weize, former Party chief of Nanjing, Jiangsu province; Xiao Tian, former deputy director of China's General Administration of Sport; and Si Xinliang, former deputy head of the provincial political advisory body in Zhejiang, have all been charged with bribery.

Wu Changshun, vice-chairman of the political advisory body of Tianjing municipality, and the city's former police chief, is accused of embezzlement and abuse of power as well as taking bribes.

The procuratorate said only that the amount of money involved was large.

All the officials have been expelled from the CPC and government offices.

The top procuratorate has named prosecuting authorities in Guizhou, Hebei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Henan provinces to investigate, the statement added.

Ruan Chuansheng, a criminal lawyer who specializes in duty-crime, said that it is common to see cases of minister-level officials tackled by prosecuting bodies that are not in same the jurisdiction as the suspects.

"Naming a prosecuting authority that is not in the jurisdiction to investigate and make the accusation improves fairness and judicial credibility," Ruan said. "It also avoids suspects being shielded by prosecutors in their jurisdictions."

Also on Friday, the top procuratorate said that Chen Xuefeng, former member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee, was being investigated for alleged bribery, following Chen's expulsion from the party on Thursday.