Chasing riches led China down the path of corruption, say party elders' children
Party elders' children put its graft woes down to decades of blindly pursuing economic growth
The all-out pursuit of wealth and economic growth, and empty moral slogans, are to blame for rampant corruption in the Communist Party, children of several party elders have said.
It was "unthinkable" that some officials took advantage of their political power to become the first to "get rich" after the country embraced economic reforms, they said on the sidelines of a conference in Hong Kong commemorating the founding of the prestigious Huangpu Military Academy 90 years ago.
"One of the major reasons [for corruption] is that our party has adopted a problematic guiding ideology," Dong Lianghui said. She is the daughter of Dong Biwu , a key member of the first-generation party leadership and who served as a vice-president.
"There is nothing wrong with letting Chinese people get rich, but the officials should never have treated themselves as the group of people who should get rich first," Dong said, referring to Deng Xiaoping's famous remark in the mid-1980s that China should reform its planned economy and "let some people get rich first" .
Ye Xiangzhen, the second daughter of the late marshal Ye Jianying , shared Dong's sentiments.
"Rampant corruption does not happen overnight," she said.
"The reason that there are corrupt officials was that China neglected moral and ethical education during the economic development over the past few decades. We were only thinking about how to enrich people's material life and help the country get richer."