Wei Jianxing said in Beijing Sunday that persistent efforts should be made to improve the working style of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and combat corruption.

Wei made the remark while joining delegates from Zhejiang Province in discussing Jiang Zemin's report to the 16th National Congress of the CPC.

The report is a guidance to building a well-off society in China and promoting socialist modernization, and is of profound significance to achieving the revitalization of the Chinese nation along the socialist path, he said.

Led by the third-generation leadership with Jiang Zemin at the core and guided by Deng Xiaoping Theory and Three Represents thought, the anti-corruption move has been going on well and made new achievements with concerted efforts of the whole Party, he said.

"The practice of fighting corruption over the past 13 years fully shows that the third-generation collective leadership with Jiang Zemin at the core has a sober understanding of the anti-corruption situation," Wei said, adding that anti-corruption has kept momentum in the course of reform and economic development.

"The Central Committee of the Party has been holding a firm stand in combating corruption," Wei said. "Any corrupt member, either on high or low position, is set to meet with severe punishment once his malconduct is exposed and confirmed."

Wei said that a review of the anti-corruption work over the past 13 years indicates that the Party's ideology and practice of combating corruption conform with the national conditions at the present stage, and that the majority of Party officials are good.

"Our party is fully capable of resolving the corruption problem," Wei said.

Meanwhile, "We should also see clearly that anti-corruption situation remains severe," Wei said, noting that corruption may occur in the reform and restructuring process.

Wei stressed that the Party style should be improved while corrupt members are punished, and that both causes and consequences should be stricken in a comprehensive way.

"We must also rely on preemptive measures such as strengthening education, developing democracy, improving legal system and tightening supervision in our anti-corruption work," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2002)