Anti-graft momentum must not abate for clean governance
China has enough reason to take pride in what it has achieved in its fight against corruption on the 15th International Anti-Corruption Day which fell on Sunday. The country is not only well on the way to building a mechanism to place power in the cage of law. It has also achieved a great deal in its cooperation with other countries in tracking down economic criminal suspects that have fled overseas.
A total of 171 ministerial level or above officials have been indicted or investigated for abuse of power since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012. More than 20 of them have been apprehended in a little more than a year since the 19th National Congress of the CPC in October 2017.
What the anti-graft fight has achieved and its unabated momentum speaks volumes for the resolve of the Party leadership to rid the Party and government of all bad apples and finally create a political and legal environment which leaves no room for abuse of power.
No corrupt elements should harbor a try-my-luck mentality in the belief that they will somehow be able to get away with any abuse of power.
Through close cooperation with an increasing number of countries, China has repatriated 4,833 economic criminal suspects from 125 countries to face trial since it launched its Skynet operations in April 2015 to hunt down such corrupt elements who have fled overseas. And these efforts will only be strengthened with China’s International Criminal Justice Assistance Law taking effect in October.
It is of vital importance to make it impossible for corrupt elements to seek a hiding place overseas, as closing this last line of retreat would shatter the notion some officials harbor that they will be able to enjoy their ill-gotten gains overseas.
Corruption is perniciously harmful to the country’s healthy economic growth, undermines its efforts to eliminate poverty and helps facilitate organized crimes. But corruption is not just a challenge to China, it is a global one.
With unremitting efforts on both the domestic and international fronts, China will be able to not only intensify its fight against corruption at home, but also play its part in the global anti-graft fight through law-enforcement collaboration and information exchanges.