Auditor-General Li Jinhua says he wishes to offend fewer people in the coming years, but if you think China's top graft-buster will be going soft on corruption, think again.
The 62-year-old Jiangsu native, dubbed the 'Iron Face' by mainland media for his scathing reports on government sleaze, lost none of his fire when quizzed by reporters outside the Great Hall of the People on stamping out corruption.
'We have two main objectives in the coming year - fighting corruption and preventing wastage of resources. Any department or organisation, as long as they receive government funding, could be a target for our auditing,' he said after attending a National People Congress session.
Mr Li, a finance graduate of the Central University of Finance and Economics, is one of the most popular officials on the mainland. He was voted Person of the Year (Economics) in 2004 by China Central Television viewers, beating other heavyweights such as the People's Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Lenovo chairman Yang Yuanqing .
'He has overcome all sorts of obstacles and made China's public finances more transparent. He is firm and upright and used actions to safeguard our national interests,' the programme said.
Mr Li was picked by former premier Zhu Rongji in March 1998 to head the National Audit Office. Within a year, he transformed the previously obscure agency under the State Council into something buzzing with excitement.
The office broke its secretive tradition of reporting only to top leaders by holding its first public press conference in December 1998. In the following June, Mr Li raised eyebrows by delivering a stinging report on the abuse of public money to the National People's Congress Standing Committee.
