‘Never rest’: China’s Xi Jinping tells Communist Party to keep up campaign against corruption
- Party must keep ‘sounding the bugle’ against graft, Xi says to congress delegates meeting in Beijing
- More than 550 officials of ministerial level and above have been investigated in the past five years, graft buster says
“As long as the breeding ground and conditions for corruption still exist, we must keep sounding the bugle and never rest, not even for a minute, in our fight against corruption,” he said.
He added that the party would continue to go after corrupt family members and aides of senior officials.
However, Xi is well expected to stay on for a groundbreaking third term as the party’s top leader, and his status is set to be cemented with an amendment to the party’s constitution.
In his report on Sunday, Xi hailed the party’s successes under his watch and laid down the basic grand strategy for the next five years.
Xi said the drive against corruption was key to ensuring that the party’s “colour”, or nature, remained unchanged. He also hailed “an overwhelming victory” against corruption in the past 10 years.
He added that through the anti-corruption campaign the party had broken the “cycle of history”, a reference to the atrophy and collapse of past dynasties.
Xi said the drive was part of the party’s mission of “self-revolution”, and members would not be allowed to even desire a rest or show weariness in the campaign.
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Since the 18th congress in November 2012, when Xi took the party’s helm, graft busters have opened more than 4.6 million cases around the country, according to Xiao Pei, a deputy head of the party’s anti-graft body.
In a briefing on Monday, Xiao said these cases included 553 officials of ministerial level and above.
Ling Li, a specialist in Chinese politics at the University of Vienna, said the party was expected to continue to use the anti-corruption drive as a tool to regulate its elites in the long term.
“Anti-corruption has become and will remain the most potent tool to regulate elite politics in China in the next five years and beyond,” she said.
“It’s characterised as a self-revolution because it is an institutionalised approach to purge its own members from positions of power, an exceptional initiative voluntarily taken by the party itself.”
Xi warns of fierce storms ahead as he vows ‘incomparable glory’ for China
On Sunday, Xi also called on the party to better train its cadres for their “capacity to struggle”, a term used regularly under Xi to refer to determination to take a tough stand, particularly against what are considered threats to China’s core issues and the party’s rule.
He added that along with the long-standing issue of corruption, one of the key challenges facing the party was the lack of “capability to struggle” among certain officials.
