Editorial,

Having lifted nearly one-fifth of the world’s population out of poverty in less than five decades, the Communist Party of China is now on the cusp of realizing its goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all aspects in 2020, a year before the 100th anniversary of its founding.

But although achievable economically, how rigorous the institutional construction of its anti-corruption system is will also have a direct bearing on the quality of that achievement.

Presiding over the fourth plenum of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in Beijing on Monday, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, stressed the importance of the fight against corruption down to the micro-level to guarantee people’s demands for a better life are met.

The tone-setting plenum of the top anti-corruption body of the CPC is worthy of attention, as it has signaled how far and how deep the ongoing construction of the anti-graft system will reach this year to help the Party enhance its governance capabilities and ensure its policies for this important year are well implemented.

Recognizing corruption to be the greatest threat to realizing the first of its two centenary goals, and the thing that people resent the most, the Party’s leadership has demonstrated its resolve and tenacity to win the anti-corruption fight, particularly since 2012.

Despite this, the fight against corruption remains grave and complex. From January to November last year, the CCDI investigated about 555,000 corruption-related cases. In all, about 485,000 officials were disciplined, among them 42 senior officials directly managed by the CPC Central Committee, and around 19,000 received prison sentences.

It can be expected, therefore, that the system will be further enhanced this year so it is better able to address both the symptoms and root causes of corruption.

As Xi says, the fight against corruption is never ending, and with the country’s rapid development and fast-changing society, the anti-corruption system must be continually improved.

So, a comprehensive mechanism will be put in place that imposes tight constraints to prevent interest groups from emerging within the Party and which maintains a tough stance for longterm deterrence, punishing those who offer bribes as well as those who take them.

With such a system in place to make sure that officials are honest, government is clean, and political affairs are handled with integrity, the fight against corruption will be able to bid farewell to the case-by-case campaign.

The meeting marked the next step forward for the Party in its efforts to forge an institutional cage to ensure officials at all levels don’t dare to, are unable to and have no desire to commit acts of corruption. Anti-corruption is a tug-of-war that the Party’s leadership is determined to win.