The party leadership will put at least a temporary moratorium on the prosecution of major corruption cases after wrapping up investigations into the Xiamen and Shantou graft scandals.
Culprits implicated in the multi-billion yuan Xiamen case will be put on trial soon. And judicial procedures for the similarly serious smuggling and corruption scandals centred on the Guangdong port of Shantou are expected to be finished before the end of the year.
A party source said the Politburo leadership had decided that at least in the short term, no more big cases would be put on trial or otherwise exposed to the public.
'The leadership does not want the party's prestige to fall further,' the source said. 'It has also been decided that in the Xiamen and Shantou cases, only cadres with ranks up to vice-ministerial levels would be prosecuted.'
The source added the administration of President Jiang Zemin thought the recently passed death sentence on the former vice-chairman of the National People's Congress, Cheng Kejie, would be sufficient to convince the people the leadership was prepared to hunt down 'big tigers' among corrupt officials.
'The leadership is reluctant to pursue senior officials with good political connections partly for fear the exposure of more such cases will deal a further blow to the party's credibility,' the source said.