With high profile crackdowns, the Ministry of Supervision and the Communist Party of China's Central Discipline Inspection Commission did a memorable job last year.
The ministry oversees departments of the central government as well as administrative authorities at the provincial level. It also investigates fraud at both levels. The commission handles inner-Party disciplinary matters.
They did not let us down in the past year.
Not that they brought more corrupt officials to justice. The number of corruption cases coming before the courts was actually down by almost 11 percent from 2005.
But many people share the impression that the CPC's and the government's harsh words on corruption were increasingly matched with serious enforcement.
The sacking of Chen Liangyu, former CPC chief of Shanghai, convinced many of the Party's pledge that nobody stands above its anti-corruption campaign.
Chen was the first member of the CPC's Political Bureau to come under judicial investigation on corruption charges. His fall served as a powerful retort to the popular belief that the CPC's vows of iron fists were never meant for those in high positions. In total, seven officials in rank similar to Chen's, were removed for corruption last year.
The investigation of the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration indicated the fight against corruption is no longer a limited attempt to dig out corrupt individuals. The ongoing housecleaning in our drug administration is a popular prescription to break the notorious chain of illicit interests within government offices.
Another factor that may reward the official corruption busters was that their areas of concentration came closer to immediate public interest.
Their responsiveness to mass complaints in such fields as drug prices, inferior farm chemicals and exorbitant school expenses has uncovered many corrupt State functionaries.
We agree with the two institutions that corrupt elements are a small minority of CPC members. However, we cannot afford to assume that investigating possible corruption is not a pressing challenge.
Instead, our corruption fighters must learn to look beyond individual cases and try to identify and plug loopholes in our systems.
That is the most efficient way to prevent corruption from spreading.
(China Daily 02/14/2007 page10)
