Chinese watchdog says 1.34 million officials punished for graft since 2013

BEIJING: China’s anti-graft watchdog said roughly 1.34 million lower-ranking officials have been punished since 2013 under President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive.

Xi, who is preparing for a major Communist Party leadership conference later this month, has made an anti-graft campaign targeting ‘tigers and flies’, both high and low ranking officials, a core policy priority during his five-year term.

China is preparing for the 19th Congress later this month, a twice-a-decade leadership event where Xi is expected to consolidate power and promote his policy positions.

Those punished for graft since 2013 include 648,000 village-level officials and most crimes were related to small scale corruption, said the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Sunday.

While much of the country’s anti-graft drive has targeted lower ranking village and county officials, several highranking figures have been taken down.

In August the head of the antigraft committee for China’s Ministry of Finance was himself put under investigation for suspected graft.

In September a senior military officer who sits on China’s powerful Central Military Commission, overseen by Xi, was detained and questioned over corruption-related offenses, Reuters reported. — Reuters