General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Jan 18, 2022. Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng attended the meeting. Zhao Leji, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the CCDI, presided over the meeting. (Photo/Xinhua)
Zhu Lijia, a professor at the National Academy of Governance, said that dealing with corruption is a focus and core component of resolute self-reform, and the study of Party history has been consistently carried out to help members adhere to the CPC's original aspirations.
The CPC has the courage to get to the root of any problem and resolutely tackle it, because its rule is based on making life better for the people, Zhu said, adding that the Party must correct anything that does not conform to this outlook.
The Party has persisted for many years in fighting corruption because it directly harms the interests of the people. Particularly since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party has waged war on all forms of corruption, with officials being investigated and punished on a scale unseen in decades.
Charges have been leveled against Party members regardless of their status, from top leaders of government departments and State-owned enterprises to village officials at the grassroots.
By October, the authorities had investigated 4.4 million officials nationwide who were suspected of bribery, 484 of them at or above the provincial or ministerial level, according to the CCDI.
Since the launch of the Sky Net anti-corruption operation in 2014, 9,200 fugitives have been brought back from 120 countries and regions to face trial, and 21.7 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) in embezzled funds has been recovered.
Many officials were sentenced to decades in prison or even capital punishment. Lai Xiaomin, former board chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co, was given the death sentence in January last year for accepting an "extremely large "amount in bribes-1.79 billion yuan.
Greater confidence in Party
A survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics at the end of 2020 showed that 95.8 percent of the people were confident in the enforcement of strict Party governance and the curbing of corruption, a 16.5-percentage-point increase over the 2012 survey.
Tao, the professor at Renmin University of China, said the two solutions offered by the CPC about how to break the historical cycle-supervision by the people and resolute self-reform-occur both outside and inside the Party. The latter is an evolution of the former, and today both solutions are being carried out throughout China.
The Party also emphasizes external supervision, he said, adding that China has supervision from non-Communist parties, the people, the media and public opinion.
General Secretary Xi also said on Tuesday at the CCDI meeting that over the past century, externally, the Party has been developing people's democracy and receiving supervision from the public, while internally, the Party has been pushing forward resolute self-reform and strict self-governance. That ensures the Party's vigor and growth.
Tao said historical experience shows that it's necessary to continue exploring how to uphold and develop socialism under complex conditions, citing the example of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's fall after being in power for over 70 years.
"No problem can be solved once and for all. The CPC will continue to accumulate experience, innovate theory and seek solutions to problems that occur," he said.
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