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SCMP Reporter

The Communist Party has hailed the success of its ongoing anti-corruption campaign, claiming it has purged 780,000 cadres and recovered 30 billion yuan (HK$28.2 billion) in public funds during the past five years.

But the self-congratulatory message comes as there is increasing unrest and protests over local cadres swindling public funds, forcibly charging arbitrary fees and ganging up with local bandits.

Just three weeks ahead of the party congress, state media yesterday trumpeted anti-graft achievements, saying the central committee had responded to the public's complaints.

'Since the 15th party congress, special actions have been taken to clean up malpractices of cadres, their spouses and siblings accepting gifts, cash and company shares and cadres abusing their position and power to seek advantages for their relatives,' the China News Service said.

The party also had banned cadres from using public funds to buy mobile phones or souvenirs and stopped them holding meetings at scenic resorts.

'Actions were also taken to punish officials who charged illegal fees to peasants as well as primary and secondary school children,' the agency said.

It said more than 790,000 corrupt cases had been investigated in the past five years, resulting in 780,000 cadres being jailed, executed or facing internal party disciplinary action.

Xinhua added that among the convicted cadres, 10,000 were division directors, more than 700 were departmental chiefs and 21 were provincial or ministerial heads. It said 70,000 had accepted bribes of at least 50,000 yuan or embezzled public funds of at least 100,000 yuan.

Despite the apparent progress in rooting out corrupt officials, there is public criticism that the more powerful party members are not being investigated.

Anti-Corruption Bureau deputy chief Wang Jianming said yesterday that leading cadres would not be excused if implicated in corruption scandals. He said the Supreme People's Procuratorate established a special taskforce in 2000 to direct investigations of senior officials.

President Jiang Zemin was parachuted into Beijing by late leader Deng Xiaoping after the fall of disgraced party boss Zhao Ziyang, who was accused of supporting the pro-democracy student demonstration in Tiananmen Square in 1989. One of the protesting students' demands was that rampant corruption among cadres be addressed.

Despite Mr Jiang's anti-graft drive, the party has been rocked by corruption scandals, including the 53 billion yuan Yuanhua Group smuggling scam in Fujian, which has brought down dozens of high-level government officials.



Crackdown on corrupt cadres hailed as big success