After a year of major corruption crackdowns, China promises new investigations, retaliation Reuters
(Corrects typographical error on Li Shangfu in paragraph 10)
Author: Ryan Woo
BEIJING (Reuters) – A day before a key meeting of China’s anti-graft watchdog, a state broadcaster aired a program on how to crack down on local corruption, dismissing any notion that China is losing its grip on corruption.
The first of four episodes of “Anti-Corruption for Citizens” aired on Sunday night, focusing on cases of petty corruption, including a northeastern elementary school principal who makes money from campus meal bribes and an official in rural Sichuan who takes bribes from agricultural contractors projects.
Last year, China was rocked by a wave of corruption investigations involving individuals from the deputy governor of the central bank to the former chairman of its biggest oil and gas company, further unsettling an economy struggling to stay afloat and a society struggling to falter. a sense of wealth.
The list of individuals also includes a senior military official, Miao Hua, an admiral, whose downfall comes as China tries to modernize its armed forces and boost combat readiness.
To dispel any notion that the ruling Communist Party, led by President Xi Jinping, is behind the curve, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced in recent days that a record 58 “tigers,” or senior officials, were investigated last year. The anti-corruption watchdog will gather from Monday to Wednesday to consolidate its tasks for 2025, state media announced.
Last year, 47 officials investigated were at the level of vice ministers or above, including Tang Renjian, former minister of agriculture and rural affairs, and Gou Zhongwen, former head of the General Administration of Sports.
Even retired senior officials were not spared, such as Wang Yilin, the former chairman and party secretary of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.
The crackdown on corruption will continue, said Andrew Wedeman, a professor at Georgia State University.
“I don’t see how Xi can afford to back down at this point,” Wedeman said. “A decade or so after he set out to purge the senior ranks, Xi is still uncovering widespread corruption at the top of the party-state and the PLA.”
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been engulfed in a wave of purges since 2023. After seven months, Li Shangfu was dismissed as Minister of Defense. His predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was expelled from the party for “serious violations of discipline,” a euphemism for corruption.
“Therefore, it would appear that the ‘pool’ from which Xi is drawing to replace corrupt officials is also full of corrupt officials,” Wedeman said.
“If Xi promotes corrupt officials, it suggests that the party’s internal vetting apparatus is not functioning effectively or, more seriously, that it is itself corrupt.”
China acknowledges that its anti-corruption efforts are facing new challenges, with traditional forms of corruption such as receiving cash becoming more insidious.
“A businessman could offer me money directly and I would refuse,” said Fan Yifei, a former vice governor of the People’s Bank of China who was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.
“But if he gives it in the form of shares or other assets, not directly to me but to my family, that’s a completely different matter,” state media quoted Fan as saying.
Even the lowest “flies” and “ants” in China’s vast bureaucracy will not be spared in the fight against corruption, as Sunday’s television program showed.
“Compared to the ‘tigers’ far away, the public feels the corruption around them more strongly,” Sun Laibin, a professor at Peking University’s School of Marxism, told the show.
The anti-corruption fight must reach the “heart” of the masses, he said, so that they can “deeply feel” the party’s concern.
