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China ups anti-graft fight
By Willy Wo-Lap Lam, CNN Senior China Analyst
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- The administration of Chinese President Hu Jintao has pledged to redouble efforts against graft, particularly big cases involving senior cadres. While touring Jiangsu Province in the past week, the Politburo member in charge of fighting corruption, Wu Guanzheng, gave a severe warning to "leading cadres who have a cavalier attitude toward discipline." Wu, deemed a Hu ally, is also head of the Communist party's Central Commission on Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI), the nation's highest anti-graft body. "We must put emphasis on more scrutiny and supervision regarding clean government," state media on Wednesday quoted Wu as saying. "We must deepen the work on fighting graft and building clean government," Wu added. Beijing sources close to the Communist party said Wu and his CCDI colleagues were under heavy pressure owing to their high-profile investigation of "premier Shanghai tycoon" Zhou Zhengyi. Zhou, who got rich in the late 1990s through speculation in the stock and real-estate markets, was detained by the authorities earlier this year for alleged corruption and business related practices. The sources said since the CCDI was also investigating Zhou's patrons and business partners -- including several senior members of the powerful Shanghai Faction in party politics -- the anti-graft investigators had met with stiff resistance. It is understood, however, that while work on the Zhou case has slowed down, Wu and President Hu want to relay the message that they will continue to go after the "big tigers" among corrupt cadres.
Earlier this week, party authorities said that the CCDI as well as the party's Organization Department would send "roving inspectors" to the provinces to check on corrupt cadres and improper business practices. This year, a team of around 45 inspectors will be doing investigation work in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Jilin, Jiangsu and Gansu. While Wu and the CCDI have been criticized for failing so far to bring down senior corrupt cadres in Shanghai, they have scored big in other provinces. Earlier this month, former party chief of Hebei Province Cheng Weigao was kicked out of the party for his involvement in a graft scandal that had already incriminated his two former secretaries. Analysts said while Cheng was not given a jail term, his political disgrace was nonetheless remarkable in view of his high-placed patrons in Beijing. In other developments in China, two bank employees were sentenced to death for embezzling 412 million yuan ($49.8 million), state-run media reported on Wednesday. The pair -- the head of a local branch of the state-owned China Construction Bank and another staff member of the same branch -- were found guilty of attracting savings from firms and individuals by offering high interest rates. However, they did not register the deposits and kept the money for their own use, the China Daily reported.
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