BEIJING -- The Chinese government's anti-corruption drive
to safeguard the purity of the Party has won plaudits from the public and
expectations of cleaner government.
The latest move was the sacking of Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu on
Sunday for alleged involvement in a social security fund scandal, becoming the
highest-ranking official to fall in the latest anti-corruption campaign.
The scandal involves the alleged illicit investment of at least a third
of a 10-billion-yuan (US$1.2 billion) city social security fund in
potentially risky real estate and road projects. Before Chen, the city's labor
and social security department chief, a district governor and several prominent
businessmen were detained for questioning over the scandal.
"The investigation into Chen's case shows how seriously China is taking the
fight against corruption," says Wang Yukai, a scholar with the National School
of Administration which trains mid-level and senior civil servants.
"The most prominent feature of this round of anti-corruption war is that it
has led to the downfall of quite a few high ranking officials, not only in
Shanghai, but also in Beijing, Tianjin and Anhui," says Wang.
Chen was also in the 24-member Political Bureau of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Party's central executive body.
"No matter who and how high-ranking they are, if they have violated party
rules or the law, the investigation will be earnest and the punishment severe,"
said a statement of the central authorities released on Monday.
Gong Weibin, another scholar with the National School of Administration,
observes that the ongoing anti-graft campaign also reveals challenges to the
Party in a crucial period of social transaction.
"Corruption is not indigenous to China. It's also afflicting the developed
countries, and sometimes leads to the downfall of a government," Gong says.
"It's necessary to take an iron fist to crack down on corruption, otherwise the
Party might lose support from the general public or even support from ordinary
Party members."
Falling "tigers"
In China, people are used to calling low-ranking corrupt officials "flies"
and the high-ranking officials "tigers."
"Since the beginning of this year, we have seen a lot of tiger-beating in the
country, instead of merely fly-swatting," Wang says.
Li Baojin, former procurator-general of Tianjin, one of China's four
municipalities along with Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, was dismissed from
his post on charges of "severe breaches of discipline" on Aug. 27. In east
China's Anhui Province, He Minxu was dismissed from his post as vice provincial
governor on Aug. 25.
In Beijing, former deputy mayor Liu Zhihua was removed from office and put
under investigation for "corruption and dissoluteness".
Similar probes have been launched against officials in Hunan and Fujian
provinces. "Top Chinese leaders are quite clear that it's a make-or-break fight
for the government to win public trust by making substantial progress in rooting
out corruption," says Wang Yukai.
"Corruption is still rampant in some fields," warned President Hu Jintao
before the Party's 85th anniversary which fell on July 1. He called on the 70
million Party members "never to slacken the fight against corruption even for a
second".
Premier Wen Jiabao also urged the Party members to build a clean government
through fighting corruption at a conference on September 4, stressing "using
power for self interest is absolutely prohibited".
Corrupt officials will be left "clean broke both economically and
politically" in the high-pressure fight against corruption, Wu Guanzheng,
secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, writes
in an article on the latest issue of Seeking Truth, the party's ideological
journal.
In an obvious bid to tighten discipline over officials, particularly those in
leading positions, the central authorities issued a rule in August requiring
officials to report personal matters, including all property transactions and
developments by them or their immediate families.
The rule bans officials from posts that control or supervise any industry or
enterprise in which their family members hold shares.
Earlier this year, the State Council and the Party's discipline watchdog
announced that clamping down on commercial bribery would be the focus of
anti-corruption efforts for some time to come.
"Many officials have been ferreted out in the fight against commercial
bribery," Wang says.
| 1 | 2 |  |
