The Communist Party of China (CPC) warned yesterday that the fight against
corruption is "still arduous."
The statement comes a day after a senior Party official
in?east China's?Shandong Province was dismissed for
misconduct, which follows the earlier high-profile firing of the
Party chief in Shanghai.
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee warned Party
members that "some outstanding problems that hurt the interests of
the masses remain unsolved," and "the phenomenon of corruption is
still quite serious," according to a Xinhua News
Agency?report.
Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central
Committee, presided over the Politburo meeting, which pledged to
continue to fight corruption and achieve clean governance,
according to a CPC statement.
At the meeting, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline
Inspection (CCDI), the Party's top corruption watchdog, reported
progress made this year and its efforts for next year.
It was agreed that the CCDI would hold its seventh plenary
meeting next month.
"The Politburo urged the whole Party to remain unified in
thinking and to have a deep understanding of the long-term,
complicated and difficult nature" of the anti-corruption drive,
according to the statement.
The anti-corruption campaign should be integrated into the
country's economic, political and cultural programs and the
building of the Party, it said.
The government has been spearheading a campaign to stop rampant
graft.?Thousands of officials have been punished, and some
executed in the last several years.
On Sunday, it was announced that Du Shicheng, deputy provincial
Party secretary in Shandong, had been fired for misconduct. Xinhua
said he committed a "serious discipline violation."
Du also lost his post as Party secretary of Shandong's key
coastal city Qingdao.
Former Party secretary of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, was dismissed
in September in connection with the scandal over alleged misuse of
more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) in pension funds.
Earlier this year, Liu Zhihua, former vice mayor of Beijing who
oversaw Olympic and related construction projects, was fired for
what was later described as "quite serious" wrongdoings.
Last year, 115,000 Party members, or 0.16 percent of the total,
received disciplinary punishment.
Of them, 11,071 were expelled from the Party and 7,279 referred
to the judicial authorities for criminal investigation, according
to an earlier Xinhua report.
(China Daily December 26, 2006)