People have every reason to ask how these unscrupulous men were recruited as government officials.

One may argue that they were originally morally fit only to be corrupted by their power in later years. If so, it makes the process of officials performing their duties more questionable.

Another example is more shocking. Lin Jiaxiang, Party chief of the Shenzhen Maritime Bureau, molested, or tried to molest, an 11-year-old girl in a hotel in Shenzhen on October 29 last year.

When condemned by the child's parents, the officials said: "Yes, I did it. What can you do to me? Tell me the price. I can give you money Do you know who I am? I'm from the Ministry of Communications, with a rank as high as your mayor. How dare you challenge me, you pigmies! Wait and see how I will give you a good lesson."

Lin's despicable behavior revealed what an arrogant official obsessed with power he was.

Lin was right - about his high status on the hierarchical ladder in China's officialdom - just as people were to question the process of promoting such low-lifes.

"Tell me who recruited this guy into the Communist Party in the first place," commented one angry Netizen.

Chinese people still hold strong confidence in the Communist Party. But many Party members have failed to meet this expectation.

They need to refresh their memories of the late Chairman Mao's instructions on the essential qualities of a Communist.

In an article commemorating Canadian Communist Norman Bethune, the surgeon who came to China to help the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mao wrote: "We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very useful to the people. A man's ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people."

E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

About the author:

劉式南 高級編輯。1968年畢業于武漢華中師范學院（現華中師范大學）英文系。1982年畢業于北京體育學院（現北京體育大學）研究生院體育情報專業。1982年進入中國日報社，先后擔任體育記者、時政記者、國際新聞編輯、要聞版責任編輯、發稿部主任、《上海英文星報》總編輯、《中國商業周刊》總編輯等職。現任《中國日報》總編輯助理及專欄作家。1997年獲國務院“特殊貢獻專家政府津貼”。2000年被中華全國新聞工作者協會授予“全國百佳新聞工作者”稱號。2006年獲中國新聞獎二等獎（編輯）。

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