Ramping up the fight against graft

Despite an unprecedented crackdown that has brought down thousands of officials, including some big names, the work of anti-graft officials in lifting the stain of corruption from the fabric of public life in the mainland is far from done. The full extent of the systemic penetration of graft continues to emerge two years after President Xi Jinping launched the campaign.

Top graft-buster Wang Qishan, head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, told more than 100 of his inspectors at a meeting in Beijing at the weekend that not only did some corrupt party cadres remain undeterred, but some had brazenly become even more corrupt.

In a sign that the crackdown has a long way to go, he warned that these officials would pay a price for their behaviour. A day later, the offices of the Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council issued a regulation banning private clubs that pamper officials from operating within public facilities such as historic sites and parks. According to reports of the regulation, these upscale hotels, spas and restaurants have become breeding grounds for corrupt practices, including luxury junketing and hedonism.

To many observers, Wang's speech at the fourth plenum of the CCDI, just after the annual meeting of the party elite, was most notable for the absence of any news of progress in the investigation of former domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang . This has prompted Jiang Wei , head of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Judicial Reform, to explain that the plenum had not decided Zhou's fate because he was no longer a state leader. Another official said details of Zhou's case would be released "in due course".

This signals a continuing power struggle over Xi's efforts to clean up government at every level, which is reflected in the willingness of some officials to take the risk of defying them. Indeed, Wang warned his inspectors of the risk of a rebound in corruption and extravagance.

The campaign to root out a cancer that has become structurally embedded in a one-party system was never going to be easy. Wang's vows of zero tolerance for resistant cliques within the party and to ramp up inspections at the lower levels of government are steps in the right direction.