Over 2,200 delegates to the 17th Party Congress began to discuss the report made by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on October 17, focusing on the Party's anti-corruption stance.
Party Chief Hu Jintao's keynote speech, delivered at the opening ceremony of the five yearly congress on Monday, declared a firm attitude – never tolerating corruption – of the world's largest ruling party with over 73 million members.
"We must see to it that all those who engage in corruption are severely punished according to law without fail," Hu declared in his speech.
Hu's address is considered a response to the call of the people. The result of an online poll about the hottest topics regarding the Party congress shows that over a half of the polled chose the "anti-corruption issue" as their top concern. The central government is expected to intensify punishment on corrupt officials so as to ensure power is better executed by officials in their duties.
Chen Liangyu, former Shanghai Party chief, being expelled from the Party on the eve of 17th Party Congress, is one of senior officials prosecuted over the past few years. Data from the Supreme People's Procuratorate show that 67,505 officials were prosecuted for corruption or bribery from January 2003 to August 2006. Nearly 1,600 officials were put into prison every month.
Speeding up the establishment of a long-term mechanism has been considered a new wisdom of the Party in curbing corruption. "While resolutely cracking down on corruption, we will work harder to remove its root cause and take preventive measures through improving relevant institutions and expanding our efforts to curb corruption at the source," said Hu Jintao.
Li Lianyu, the Party chief of Pizhou City, Jiangsu Province, said: "Hu's speech shows that central government is determined to curb corruption fundamentally."
Analysts pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party is turning its anti-corruption efforts from power-steering means to system-oriented measures together with cultural and educational efforts, which shows a more tactful system establishment in fighting corruption. In the meantime, it further challenges the Party's ability of governance.
Statistics shows that, over the past five years, more than 160 laws and regulations and regulatory documents have been issued or revised by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection or the Ministry of Supervision. Over 40 rules have been drafted by other ministries and some 1,000 regulations were formulated by local authorities. They constitute a basic legal framework for fighting corruption and promoting a clean government.
A new agency, the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention, was formally inaugurated on September 13. "Strengthening supervision, with a watchdog showing up in the front, is key to effectively preventing corruption," said Han Peixin, former Party secretary of Jiangsu Province.
The Party has streamlined a unified management of its discipline inspection organs at various levels and improved the system of inspection tours. In addition, other practices, like work performance reporting, precautious or warning conversation, and intra-Party inquiry, are also playing their roles.
Lin Ruo, the former Party secretary of Guangdong Province, said that the CPC is giving more attention to expanding inner-Party democracy with increasingly strengthened and more specific system arrangement. Inner-party supervision channels are much smoother than before, Lin said.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued a new regulation last June, which defines a clear discipline policy, depicting in detail forbidden conducts of officials in eight aspects. Thereafter, within a specified deadline, a total of 1,790 people confessed their problems involving a total fund of over 77.89 million yuan (US$10.2 million).
"Whether anti-corruption measures are being effectively implemented or not will largely determine the rise and fall of the Party and the revival of the country," said 80-year-old Wu Renbao, the Party chief of the economically prosperous Huaxi Village in Jiangsu Province.
(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong, October 19, 2007)
