Top leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hu Jintao
stressed the importance of ending corruption to maintain the status
and strength of the Party. He was speaking at Tuesday's fifth
plenary session of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline
Inspection.
Hu is general secretary of the CPC Central Committee as well as
the president of the People's Republic of China.
He stressed the vital importance of fighting corruption to
maintain the CPC's ruling status and vowed to make anti-corruption
work one of the Party's primary and unending tasks.
The CPC's ruling status and ability to govern come from the
people, and support of the people is the political foundation and
source of power of the Party, said Hu. Corruption is the greatest
threat to the CPC, weakening its basis of authority, reducing its
ability to govern and shaking its status of supremacy.
While pledging to continue cracking down on corrupt officials,
Hu called for a system to regulate the use of power to "gradually
remove the soil that generates corruption." The system should
prevent corruption through promoting education and punish violators
in strict compliance with regulations and supervision.
The establishment of such a system is a major strategic decision
based on past experience and careful analysis of the current
situation.
"It is also the only way to prevent corruption in a socialist
market economy," Hu said.
He indicated that anti-corruption work should continue focusing
on leading officials who made illegal personal gains by misusing
their power.
He also called on discipline inspection departments to improve
their ability to fight corruption and ordered the strengthening of
institutional construction for anti-corruption efforts.
All nine members of the Standing Committee of the Political
Bureau of the CPC Central Committee attended the meeting, which
opened on January 10.
(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2005)