Since the 14th National Party Congress was held in 1992, central and local commissions for discipline inspection have further strengthened the work style of the Party with a focus on battling corruption. Over the past five years, work has been done in the following areas:

Strengthening Honesty and Self-Discipline Among Leading Cadres. From January 1993 to June 1997, some 263,000 Party and government cadres at or above the county level nationwide examined and corrected their problems involving violation of rules or regulations on honesty and self-discipline.

Remarkable successes have been achieved in work to halt the unnecessary procurement of luxury cars. Party and government bodies throughout the country investigated 21,000 car-related cases in which 456 luxury cars were used by leading cadres at provincial or ministerial levels.

Overall progress also has been made in stemming problems of cadres taking advantage of their power to seek personal privileges, including the problem of cadres seeking special living conditions. Throughout the country, 586,000 cadres at or above section levels examined and corrected problems related to such special conditions.

Corrupt Elements Punished. Between October 1992 and June 1997, discipline inspection and supervision institutes throughout the country placed more than 731,000 cases on file for investigation and prosecution. Among them, 670,100 cases were wound up, with more than 669,300 people punished according to Party disciplinary standards and state laws. Of these, 121,500 were expelled from the Party and 37,492 were expelled from the Party and punished according to the Criminal Law.

Major cases cracked during the period included that involving Chen Xitong (former member of the CPC Political Bureau and secretary of the Beijing municipal Party committee) and Wang Baosen (former member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing municipal Party committee and executive deputy mayor of Beijing).

Similar cases also included those involving Ouyang De, former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress and former secretary of the Dongguan municipal Party committee, who was found to have accepted bribes; Bian Shaobin, former deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, who was found to have taken illegal income; Guo Ziwen, former deputy general manager of the China Coal Marketing and Transportation Corp., who was found to have taken bribes; Hu Jianxue, former secretary of the Taian municipal Party committee, who was found to have taken bribes; Yan Jianhong, former deputy director of the Guizhou Provincial Planning Commission and board chairman of the Guizhou Provincial International Trust and Investment Co., who was found to have accepted bribes and misappropriated public funds; and Li Shanyou, former deputy secretary general of the Hainan provincial government, who was found to have framed a case against somebody, visited prostitutes and committed serious economic crimes.

As a result of such investigations, more than 15.98 billion yuan was retrieved for the state.

Correcting Unhealthy Department and Trade Tendencies. To counter the tendency toward excessive complaints, nationwide efforts have been made in recent years to put an end to setting up excessive inspection points on highways and arbitrarily imposing fees or fines. Nationwide, more than 8,700 highway fee-collecting stations and inspection stations were removed.

In addition, discipline-inspection organizations solved cases involving 1.9 billion yuan in enterprise funds and more than 10,000 automobiles and ships used without payment by Party and government bodies. They also curbed more than 4,000 tour groups composed of 24,900 people to go abroad at collective funds, and cleared up 71,800 people going abroad for sight-seeing purposes through embezzlement of public funds and recovered expenditures that should have been paid by individuals.

Future Work

Problems also exist amid the battle against corruption. For example, some criminals involved in major cases were not punished according to law.

In the next five years, the following efforts will be devoted toward curbing the spread of corruption among Party and government bodies and the contingent of cadres:

Enforcement of Party Discipline. The Party Constitution will be upheld to safeguard the central authority. In light of Party discipline, efforts will be made to investigate and affix responsibility upon those who go against the Party's basic line and four fundamental principles; disregard central government prohibitions; practice bourgeois liberalism and local or department protectionism; or frame others or spread political rumors and destroy Party unity and consolidation.

Further Strengthening Law Enforcement. Efforts will be made to strengthen investigation and handle cases with a focus on rooting out those involved in major cases. The principle of "everyone is equal before discipline and law" will be upheld. Those violators, no matter who they are, will be punished strictly according to law. Strengthening the Supervision Mechanism. Supervision should particularly be enforced regarding high-ranking and medium-ranking officials and leading responsible members at various Party and government levels. No one has the privilege of not being supervised. Efforts should be made to give full play to supervision by the public, democratic parties, public people without party affiliation and public organizations as well as supervision of mass media.

For this purpose, efforts will be made to strengthen the work of handling letters of complaint or accusations from the public; introduce the system of appraising Party members through public discussion; and open financial affairs to the public with the participation of the public to decide public affairs and public welfare undertakings.

All cadres will be put under democratic supervision. We should improve enterprise and institutional management with the staff and workers' congress as the basic form, organize staff and workers to take part in reform and management and bring their supervisory role into full play.

Efforts will also be devoted toward strengthening the building of democracy and the legal system to ensure the democratic rights of Party members and the public. Support will be given to Party members to conduct democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management and democratic supervision in light of the Party Constitution and state law.

(NO. 47 NOVEMBER 24, 1997)