Editorial | Anti-corruption drive also a way to promote discipline in the party
- The campaign against graft promotes discipline through enforcing rules at all levels of the party, and pushes cadres to implement Xi Jinping’s policy priorities without quarter
China’s drive to root out corruption and bolster discipline in the Communist Party under party chief Xi Jinping shows no sign of letting up.
Last year, 110,000 officials from the local level to the upper echelons faced disciplinary action for violating Xi’s hallmark “eight rules on official conduct”, part of his relentless drive to clean up the party.
According to the party’s anti-corruption body, that’s a 13 per cent increase in cases over the previous year, when Xi cemented another term as party chief.
Xi earlier had hailed an overwhelming victory against corruption. But early in January, he signalled the job was not yet done, urging the commission to persevere and break China out of its historic ebb-and-flow cycle of corruption.
To some Western critics, Xi is simply using an anti-corruption push in a power struggle to settle scores and eliminate political opponents, and it will go away once he consolidates power, a practice not uncommon in party history.
To be sure, there have been signals that the party will no longer even spare retired leaders from disciplinary scrutiny. But Xi has deeper motivations.
