By Abraham Olatunbosun
China has investigated more than 761,000 cases of corruption and improper conduct in workplace in the last 10 years, a senior anti-graft official revealed this at a news conference on the sidelines of the ongoing 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Monday.
Chinese President and Secretary General of the CPC, Xi Jinping in his opening address to the National Congress of the Party on Sunday, had referred to corruption as a cancer to the vitality and ability of the party and reminded party’s officials that fighting corruption is the most thorough kind of self-reform there is.
Xiao Pei, the deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC Central Committee which is China’s top anti-graft watchdog, addressing the press conference, added that in the past 10 years, 265 senior officials under the management of the Organisation Department of the CPC Central Committee were placed under investigation for breaching the eight-point decision.
He said: “Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the Party has resolutely implemented the eight-point decision that requires officials to strictly practice frugality and eradicate undesirable work styles, keeping a strong fight against those using public funds to buy gifts or pay for banquets and travels.”
“We made public the violation cases in consecutive 108 months, and exposed names of the violators in some influential cases,” he said.
He added that: “Since the 19th National Congress in 2017, discipline and supervision departments across the country have also solved over 282,000 cases in which officials were found with pointless formalities and bureaucratism.
“Since the 19th National Congress, we’ve also expanded public supervision, investigating more than 347,000 cases in which officials dealt with residents’ affairs in an improper manner, including those with negative or reluctant work attitude, or who didn’t miss any opportunity for personal gains.”
On the matter of corruption which President Jinping widely addressed in his report, the officials disclosed that more than 761,000 cases of officials who allegedly violated the eight-point decision on improving conduct had been handled in the last decade.
At the press conference, officials also re-enforced the party secretary general’s on ensuring expanded foreign investment and high-level opening up.
Zhao Chenxin, the deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, disclosed that this would be done through ensuring policy support mainly at central government level regarding land use, industrial plan, environmental protection assessment and energy consumption to the projects
He disclosed that China would soon release the 6th list of major foreign investment projects in an effort to promote foreign investment and opening-up of the economy.
He said: “We will advance high-level opening-up and strengthen policies to better unleash the potential of foreign investment in promoting high-quality development and smoothing domestic and international circulations.”
China has since 2018 occasionally released the list of key foreign investment projects as foreign investment promotion gimmicks.
On energy, Ren Jingdong, deputy director of the National Energy Administration and member of the administration’s CPC leadership group, said initiatives were being implemented to ensure enough energy supply especially during winter.
He said: “It is important to monitor power demand and have a good operational management of the energy system.”
The scope of measures, Jingdong said ranged from possibly increasing reserves on traditional bases of oil and gas and renewable energies which also serves the purpose of reducing emissions.
He however reiterated China’s resolve to support renewable energy expansion and effectively ensure the promotion of the green and low-carbon transformation in line with its commitment to the global agenda on emissions reduction by 2030.
The party official added that due attention was necessary in advance in order to ensure power supply demands are met. He said: “We are making a detailed and solid scheme to ensure power supply, and implement daily coal production management on a national scale.”
He disclosed that since the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), China has added 270 million kilowatts of power generation capacity, and increased power transmission capacity to Central and East China by more than 20 million kW.
Jingdong further revealed the Jinping administration plan of fast-tracking the construction of large hydropower stations in Southwest China and developing the coastal nuclear power plants in a safe and orderly manner.
On what has been done in the area of food security, the party administration gave assurance, insisting that this was perhaps one of the factors that may impede on the party’s goal of attaining social-economic liberation in totality.
Jinping had emphasised that China will continue to put agricultural and rural development first on top of consolidating and expanding achievements in poverty alleviation.
Cong Liang, the director of the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration however said at the press conference that the administration was now able to guarantee national food security, highlighting that grain output had hit a record high of 683 million metric tons the previous year.
He said: “Our grain reserve network has been further improved and this has played an effective role in maintaining the bottom line, stabilising expectations and ensuring food security.”
He disclosed that the country’s food supply network consisted of 6,000 grain processing enterprises and 53,000 supply stations on top of other services that can act as back-up in case of a serious shortfall occasioned by any emergency.
Liang maintained that despite global unstable food supply, China’s food supply remained stable and enough to meet the population demand.
