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Angela Meng

The mainland's top anti-graft body has vowed to step up its fight against corruption in China's state-owned enterprises.
The statement came one day after chief graft-buster Wang Qishan announced that this year's first round of disciplinary inspections would focus on 26 centrally run businesses.
It is the largest round of SOE inspections ever announced by the CCDI.
The companies are major players in oil and energy, electricity, telecommunications, transport, materials and minerals, and construction.
They are all on the Fortune Global 500 list.
"The scale is where the significance is," Steve Tsang, a senior fellow at the China Policy Institute and head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, said.
"It reflects the confidence the [inspectors] have to manage the ramifications."
Tsang said that the move showed a confidence in managing market reaction and resistance from vested interests.
"There will be no immediate impact," Tsang said. "They're choosing to announce it before the [Lunar] New Year when the stock market closes in China and Hong Kong.
"It's a technicality that minimises market movements, because Hong Kong is the most important market for Chinese companies."
An article published on the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said the fight against corruption at SOEs had been "upgraded and reinforced".
Despite a massive effort to crack down on corruption within SOEs, many top-level executives were still able to benefit from their positions, by selling official jobs, indulging in nepotism, wining and dining using public funds and making illegal profits, said the China Disciplinary and Inspection Newspaper, a journal run by the CCDI.
In another article, published on the CCDI's website and headlined "Has anti-corruption really damaged our economy?", the agency defended its drive and explained that the slowdown in China's economy was structural and the "new normal".
Anyone who blamed the economic slowdown on anti-corruption efforts was either misinformed or driven by "ulterior motives", it said.
According to a recent People's Daily report, Zhou Benshun, party boss of northeastern Hebei province, had expressed fear that "too much punishment of senior officials could harm the stability and development of the local economy".
The report said that it was quoting a self-criticism session in December.
"The anti-corruption campaign is real," Tsang said. "There may be a factional dimension to it, but the two are not mutually exclusive."
The CCDI's inspections over the past two years have targeted 14 major SOEs and last year led to the downfall of more than 70 executives.
In 2013, the anti-graft body's work led to the investigation and punishment of more than 182,000 party officials, according to the CCDI's 2013 review.
The huge number of SOEs on the mainland are controlled mostly by local governments in three categories - those controlled by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, banking and finance organisations, and media organisations.
Most SOEs are able to reap substantial profits because they are run as monopolies with government subsidies and have easy access to credit.


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 China’s top anti-graft body vows to step up fight against corruption in state-owned enterprises 

Chief graft-buster Wang Qishan said this year's first round of disciplinary inspections would focus on 26 centrally run businesses. All are on the Fortune Global 500 list. Photo: Xinhua

Chief graft-buster Wang Qishan says that this year’s first round of disciplinary inspections will focus on 26 centrally run businesses. Photo: Xinhua

China’s state-owned enterprises face new inspections in crackdown on graft

Wang Qishan says the widening probe will cover all major SOEs this year. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

'Upgraded' focus on state-owned enterprises is carefully timed and reflects growing confidence of the mainland's graft-busters, analysts say


The mainland's top anti-graft body has vowed to step up its fight against corruption in China's state-owned enterprises.
