Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) leader Wu Guanzheng on
Sunday joined the country's political advisors from the health
sector in a panel discussion and briefed them on the Party's graft
fighting.
The Party's corruption watchdog will continue to target
corruption, collusion between officials and businessmen, and
commercial bribery, said Wu, head of the Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection of the CPC.
The advisors, or members of the National Committee of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the
country's top advisory body, have convened to attend an annual
session which opened on Saturday.
Wu, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political
Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, told the health advisors that
more official attention will be given to the concerns of the
public. In the meantime, officials should be made to improve their
work ethics and promote a thrifty and clean lifestyle.
"Corruption should be prevented and uprooted together with the
country's economic, political, cultural and social development and
Party building," Wu said.
China's widely publicized anti-graft combat has led to the
downfall of a number of high-profile corrupt officials over the
past year.
In the health circle, Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of the State
Food and Drug Administration, has been expelled from the Communist
Party and given administrative penalty for taking advantage of the
administration's drug approval power to obtain bribes and seek
illegal profits for some drug companies.
Former Communist Party chief of Shanghai Chen Liangyu is under
investigation for the city's social security fund scandal.
Since 2003, more than 67,000 government officials have been
punished for corruption, with more than 17,500 prosecuted and
sentenced in the first eight months of 2006, official figures
showed.
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2007)