CPC warns of 'grim, complicated' fight against corruption despite progress

BEIJING -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) is still facing a "grim and complicated" situation in its clean governance drive and the fight against corruption, a report from the Party's anti-graft body read.

According to a work report of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) submitted to the 19th CPC National Congress which concluded earlier this week, the CPC had registered remarkable progress in its strict Party governance drive over the past five years.

The Party's political activities were reinvigorated, and its political ecology improved, the report said.

Disciplinary authorities have investigated 440 officials at or above provincial or corps level for corruption over the past five years, who included 43 members and alternate members of the CPC Central Committee, as well as nine members of the CCDI. In the first nine months of this year alone, 56 officials at or above provincial level were investigated and punished.

Rampant corruption was headed off, and a crushing momentum had been gained and consolidated against graft, it read, adding that the Party was "reborn" and was "beaming fresh, strong vitality."x However, the breeding ground for corruption continues to exist, the report said, citing obstinate negative factors that threaten the Party's political activities and ecology, weak Party leadership, inadequate Party building and insufficient Party governance.

It said some Party organizations had failed to fully implement the CPC's Constitution, its rules and disciplines, as well as the Party lines and policies, and corruption cases occurred frequently, particularly in certain regions and departments.

Corruption at grass-roots levels is far from being rid off, and a number of discipline inspection officials had demonstrated poor work conduct. Some even defied and violated inspection disciplines, leveraging their power to seek personal gains, the report said.

"Corruption has existed since the beginning of the history of human civilization," it read. "All public power is at the risk of being corrupted, and all ruling parties are faced with the fight against corruption."

Self-purification thus is a major challenge for the CPC, which has been China's sole ruling party since 1949, the report said.

It said the CPC must coordinate intra-Party supervision with national supervision, advance the modernization of its governance capabilities, and find an effective way to improve self-supervision on the basis of a lone-term rule.

The report noted that Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era shall be taken as a powerful theoretical weapon as well as a guide for action for graft busters, urging them to keep in alignment with the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core.

In the next five years, the CCDI will fully implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, and work to improve Party governance and the work style of its members.

It will also deepen reform on the national supervisory system, build a team of trustworthy discipline inspectors, and make greater efforts to ensure officials do not dare to be corrupt, institutionalize the legal framework so it is not possible to be corrupt, and finally create a moral compass so that officials do not want to be corrupt, the report said.