'Accountability' downfall of many officials in 2008

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-30 23:33

BEIJING - Accountability became a vogue word in Chinese politics in 2008, highlighted by the resignation of the chief quality supervisor.

Li Changjiang, former director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, stepped down in September in the tainted milk scandal, days after the resignation of Shanxi Governor Meng Xuenong following a deadly landslide triggered by the collapse of an illegal mining dump.

Many junior officials also swallowed the bitter pills of penalties and resignations. In early December, the director of the construction bureau of Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, was removed from his post after six bureau officials were found gambling during work time.

Officials were even punished for dozing in meetings, such as 12 local officials in Shaanxi Province, who were reprimanded in June.

"The accountability system has been taken to a new high, which reflects the method of administration as stipulated in the keynote report of the 17th Party congress," said Wu Zhongmin of the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

"The party underlines the idea of people first, so it is not unusual that officials are punished after public interests are infringed," Wu said.

Chinese media have used the word "storm" to describe the wave of cases in which officials were punished over accountability -- often indirect -- in accidents and scandals this year. Such events were rare in the past decade.

In southwestern Yunnan Province, 864 officials have been punished so far this year, while at least 279 in the northeastern Jilin Province have been punished since last November.

"A storm is powerful, and the accountability storm shows the country's determination to run the party and government properly," said Han Yu, professor in the Party School of the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee.

The storm also shows the power of public opinion, Han added. "There should be someone held responsible for serious infringement of public interests."

China activated the official accountability system during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis in 2003. More than 1,000 officials, including then Health Minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong, were ousted for attempts to cover up the epidemic or incompetence in SARS prevention and control.

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