Top leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hu Jintao stressed the importance of ending corruption to maintain the status and strength of the Party. He was speaking at Tuesday's fifth plenary session of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Hu is general secretary of the CPC Central Committee as well as the president of the People's Republic of China.

He stressed the vital importance of fighting corruption to maintain the CPC's ruling status and vowed to make anti-corruption work one of the Party's primary and unending tasks.

The CPC's ruling status and ability to govern come from the people, and support of the people is the political foundation and source of power of the Party, said Hu. Corruption is the greatest threat to the CPC, weakening its basis of authority, reducing its ability to govern and shaking its status of supremacy.

While pledging to continue cracking down on corrupt officials, Hu called for a system to regulate the use of power to "gradually remove the soil that generates corruption." The system should prevent corruption through promoting education and punish violators in strict compliance with regulations and supervision.

The establishment of such a system is a major strategic decision based on past experience and careful analysis of the current situation.

"It is also the only way to prevent corruption in a socialist market economy," Hu said.

He indicated that anti-corruption work should continue focusing on leading officials who made illegal personal gains by misusing their power.

He also called on discipline inspection departments to improve their ability to fight corruption and ordered the strengthening of institutional construction for anti-corruption efforts.

All nine members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee attended the meeting, which opened on January 10.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2005)