Top graft-buster slams ruling party

Unhealthy political culture hindering anti-corruption efforts, says Wang

BEIJING: China’s top graft-buster launched a scathing attack on the ruling Communist Party’s members, writing that party political culture remained “unhealthy” and governance weak even after five years of renewed effort to fight the problem.

The comments by Wang Qishan, who runs the party’s anti-corruption watchdog, came after sources said a senior official, who was considered a contender for promotion at this autumn’s key party congress, was being probed for “discipline violations”.

Wang said the anti-graft inspections, which began when President Xi Jinping took office five years ago, routinely discovered the same problems.

“All of the issues discovered during the inspections reflect the weakening of party leadership, shortcomings in party building and insufficient efforts to strictly enforce party discipline,” Wang wrote in the party’s official People’s Daily newspaper yesterday.

“Party concepts are faint, organisation is lax and discipline flabby. The root is in the party’s internal political life being not serious and unhealthy.”

As head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), Wang, 69, has been the chief enforcer of Xi’s pervasive anti-corruption drive and is widely considered the party’s most powerful man after Xi.

Despite an unwritten retirement age rule suggesting that he should step down at this autumn’s party congress, Wang could be kept on by Xi as head of a new National Supervisory Commission that will combine the powers of several graft-fighting bodies, said sources with ties to the leadership.

Wang said in his People’s Daily piece that the fight against corruption would remain “a long process”.

Critics of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign have long accused it of being an instrument to sideline political rivals.

Sun Zhengcai, the Chongqing party boss abruptly removed from office on Saturday, had been seen as a potential candidate for elevation at the autumn congress and as a possible future premier, but his star had waned since coming under fire from the anti-corruption watchdog.

Xi’s crackdown on corruption has seen dozens of senior officials jailed, reaching right into the upper echelons of the party. Xi has warned, like others before him, that the problem is so serious it could affect the party’s grip on power.

Wang agreed with that assessment in his article.

“The greatest challenge to our party ruling for a long time and ruling fully is effective supervision.

“Putting out there the problems that objectively exist shows a high level of self-confidence and staunch focus, winning over the faith, trust and confidence of the people in the party’s centre,” he wrote, referring to the party’s top leadership.