Fight against corruption starts with a pin
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All civil servants in Tongzhou district of Beijing will be wearing a pin on their lapel from now on as a reminder to turn down bribes and stay clean. As the first branded anti-corruption campaign in China, the Tongzhou government spent a year deciding on a logo and has high hopes for the scheme.
"An anti-corruption pin on the chest serves as a constant reminder for all civil servants to restrain from reaching out their hands for bribes," said Song Jule, director of Tongzhou Discipline Inspection Committee of the CPC, "it is the symbol of self-discipline."
The first batch of 10,000 pins were given to civil servants at the campaign's launch party Monday night. Song said that more pins were to be made and handed to all civil servants soon.
Titled "Fresh Breeze Over the Canal", the campaign also has a theme song, appropriately titled "When the Fresh Breeze Blows Over the Canal"[translated by reporter].
Tongzhou is the starting point of the ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, a historical and cultural heritage the district government cherishes.
The logo, as printed on the pin, features a budding lotus flower floating on Tongzhou canal. At a distance the logo looks like a little boat with a sail. "It has deep meanings," Song told the Global Times. "It means that Tongzhou's civil servants are clean and transparent, sailing into a bright future."
The logo was selected from more than 100 designs submitted by designers all over China over the past year. Another 51 designs that didn't make the cut were printed into a booklet. The logo will also appear on bookmarks, calendars in government offices and billboards, "so civil servants are constantly reminded of self-discipline and anti-corruption," said Song.
Yang Weidong, a Chinese Academy of Governance professor, said it's meaningless only to wear the pins to fight corruption, and punishments against corruption should be harsher. Most importantly, "there must be supervision of authority's power."
The next step in the campaign will feature anti-corruption sculptures in Qingfeng park, a small area in Tongzhou Forest Park, to be built next year.
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