"China should build up a national system of honest politics and administration as early as possible to prevent corruption, setting curbs on the spread and propagation of the corruptive phenomena," said Hu Angang in a grave manner, expert in the study of national conditions.

Supposed to say that China had embarked on the work with economic construction as its core after the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC in 1978, thus opening up an era for the soaring up of China's economy, said the expert. Today, China should shift its central work to the establishment of a system, the system of honest politics and administration so as to open up a new age for system construction in China.

How is China going to build its system of honest politics and administration? The following are the five concrete suggestions Hu Angang has put forward.

• The Chinese Communist Party is the Party in power. To build up a democratic system in China depends first of all on the establishment of a democratic system within the Party itself. To achieve this, it is necessary to further strengthen an interactive system for dual-way supervision from top to bottom and vice versa.

• To improve continuously the system of the people's congress and ensure the democratic decision by the people in which it will greatly help diminish the scope and scale of corruption, thereby laying an effective control on a chain of corruption within the government organizations.

• To set up a judicial system of relative independence in which it can implement the law in conformity with the law and to render the judicial system an independent organization, an independent establishment with its own fund-supply and able to exercise the law in an independent way.

• To strengthen the function of auditing supervision in order to enhance the efficiency of auditing system.

• To establish a standardized civil-servant system in order to reduce chances for corruption. To raise greatly all kinds of anti-corruption costs and go in for the enhancement of an honest politics and administration. To keep an honest and clean hand on incomes, rendering the corruptive behavior "one of high risk but low benefit". This is a primary way of thinking in designing a system to prevent the corruption among civil servants.

The priority must first be given to the prevention of corruption in the establishment of a national system of honest politics and administration but not to mete out punishment afterwards, said Hu Angang. To establish a national system of honest politics and administration in China will realize an alteration of the state functions. That is to promote the government organizations to a reasonable use of public powers in execution of a fair distribution of public expenses, an effective use of public resources and finally to increase the public welfare.

(People's Daily February 26, 2002)