The country is determined to reduce corruption to the minimum through "unremitting efforts", a spokesman for China's top legislature said yesterday.

"China has been consistent and clear-cut in fighting against corruption," Jiang Enzhu told a press conference a day before the 5th session of the 10th National People's Congress.

The government has taken a series of measures to improve the anti-corruption system, and is responding to problems in a timely and relentless manner, he said.

The latest example is Chen Liangyu, who was removed from his post as Shanghai's Party chief last September for "grave discipline violations" in the social security fund scandal in the country's financial hub.

Jiang said Chen will not attend this year's NPC meeting, though his post as a deputy to the top legislature has not yet been terminated. It will be decided after the investigation is over.

The investigation has proceeded well and details of Chen's case will be publicized at an "appropriate time," Jiang said.

Last year, 2,744 corrupt officials were removed from their posts, according to the annual report of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

A State corruption prevention bureau would be launched soon to help stem graft at its source, the commission's vice-secretary Gan Yisheng said last month.

Anti-corruption is an issue of most concern to the public, and it will continue to be a hot subject to be addressed during this year's NPC session, according to experts and polls conducted online and off-line by the media in the run-up to the top legislature's gathering.

Also at the press conference, Jiang rejected criticism that the drafted property law went against the Constitution, saying it gave equal protection to public and private property.

The draft is expected to be approved at the NPC session along with the draft corporate income tax law, which Jiang said will neither cause massive influence on foreign companies nor affect their enthusiasm for investment.

Jiang also said relations across the Taiwan Straits would face "severe challenges" this year as the Taiwan authorities' efforts to seek "de jure independence" through "constitutional reform" might enter a "substantive" stage.

(China Daily March 5, 2007)