China probed nearly 5 million officials for corruption

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature anti-corruption drive has probed nearly five million officials since 2012, the ruling Communist Party said on Monday, a day after he warned that the party cannot rest, even for a minute in the fight against corruption.

Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the 20th Congress of the party, which began on Sunday, Xiao Pei, a deputy head of the party’s anti-graft body said that some 207,000 party officials were punished in the last 10 years.

Since Xi came to power in November 2012, more than 4.6 million officials around the country have been probed for corruption, Xiao said.

Xiao added these cases included 553 officials at the ministerial level and above.

The Congress with over 2,300 delegates is widely expected to endorse Xi for a third term, which will make him the only leader after the party founder Mao Zedong to continue in power for more than two-five year terms.

Critics say Xi effectively used his anti-graft campaign to consolidate power.

Ahead of the Congress, three top security officials were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption.

Ling Li, a specialist in Chinese politics at the University of Vienna, said the party was expected to continue to use the anti-corruption drive as a tool to regulate its elites in the long term.

“Anti-corruption has become and will remain the most potent tool to regulate elite politics in China in the next five years and beyond,” she told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

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“It’s characterised as a self-revolution because it is an institutionalised approach to purge its own members from positions of power, an exceptional initiative voluntarily taken by the party itself,” she said.

The anti-graft campaign figured high in Xi’s speech at the Congress on Sunday in which he warned that "as long as the breeding grounds and conditions for corruption still exist, we must keep sounding the bugle and never rest, not even for a minute, in our fight against corruption." Xi also spoke of serious hidden dangers inside the party, the country and the military have been removed.

"We have waged a battle against corruption on a scale unprecedented in our history. Driven by a strong sense of mission, we have resolved to 'offend a few thousand rather than fail 1.4 billion' and to clear our party of all its ills," Xi added.

He pointed out that corruption is cancer to the vitality and ability of the party, and fighting corruption should be self-reformed.

There is zero tolerance in the Communist Party for senior cadres who collude with business, President Xi warned, pledging the toughest penalties for any offenders.

“[We will] seriously deal with corruption intertwining political and economic problems,” Xi told party delegates attending the Congress on Sunday.

“[We must] resolutely put a stop to collusion between cadres in leading positions who become the spokespersons or agents of interest groups and powerful cliques," he added.