Anti-graft push by Xi took root in 1988, report says

When Xi Jinping served as Party secretary of Ningde prefecture in Fujian province nearly 30 years ago, he launched a massive anti-graft campaign to punish numerous officials who broke the rules to build their private houses, according to an article in People's Daily.

Zhang Mingqing, a former People's Daily journalist who covered the anti-graft campaign launched by Xi in Ningde, recalled some details in a story published by the newspaper on Friday.

In June 1988, Xi became Party secretary of Ningde from his former post as executive vice-mayor of coastal Xiamen, and he immediately found that many officials in the impoverished prefecture had violated discipline and laws to build private houses on illegally occupied land.