Despite a highly-publicized anti-corruption campaign headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, China has scored poorly on an international corruption index and has slipped down by several points when compared to the last year.
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries on a scale of 100 points, where zero means "highly corrupt" and 100 means "very clean." China scored only 36 on the scale and dropped to the 100th place as opposed to 80th last year, reported the CNN.
It stood on par with Algeria and Suriname.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying termed the index "inconsistent" with China's anti-corruption drive and said that the public will judge the achievement that the government has made and will not be affected by the index.
North Korea and Somalia scored the lowest and were named the worst of 174 countries with a score of just eight. Denmark and New Zealand ranked least corrupt with scores of 91 and 92 respectively.
Jose Ugaz, the chair of Transparency International, said in a press release that the Corruption Perceptions Index highlights the problems that emerging economies have with public sector corruption, misappropriation of funds and bribery. It's based on perceptions of public sector corruption, from the perspective of business people and country experts.