"Comrades of the whole Party must, from the height of the life and death of the Party and the State, fully understand the important significance of the work of punishing corruption and building a clean and honest government, and carry this struggle through the end." The above remarks of Comrade Jiang Zemin demonstrate our Party's firm determination to fight corruption. A sample survey conducted among departments concerned shows: The degree of the masses' approval of the anti-corruption work in 2002 is 11 percentage points higher than in 1996; the approval degree of those who think the high corruption momentum has been curbed within a certain range has risen by 13.4 percentage points; and the degree of those who express their confidence in the anti-corruption struggle has jumped by 20 percentage points over 1996.

Fixing the Anti-corruption Road

Since 1989, Comrade Jiang Zemin has made 10 important speeches at the plenary sessions of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in which he repeatedly stressed that "to run the country, it is necessary to first administer the Party, and Party affairs must be administered with severity", and he has given a series of important instructions on the guiding ideology, basic principles and strategic arrangements for the struggle against corruption.

Since the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th Party Central Committee, particularly since the 15th Party National Congress, our Party has determined the guiding ideology for the anti-corruption struggle in the New Period, to put it briefly, it is: in fight against corruption, we must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), adhere to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the Party's basic line as the guidance, and act on the requirements of the "three represents", we must work closely around the center of economic construction, obey and serve the general situation of reform, development and stability; we have set a pattern for the three fields of work relating to the anti-corruption struggle, namely, leading cadres must be clean and honest and self-disciplined, we must investigate and deal with cases of violation of discipline and law, and correct the unhealthy trend existing in departments and trades, we must persistently set up two defense lines of ideology and morality, and Party discipline and State laws, we must base ourselves on educating the overwhelming majority of Party members and leading cadres and keep our eyes on precautions, and have severely punished a tiny handful of corrupt elements; we have formed the working line of making general strategic arrangements, instituted tactical, stage-by-stage implementation, scored constant, phased achievements and added many small victories up to a big one; we have adopted countermeasures to strengthen education, perfect the legal system, intensify supervision and continuously eradicate corruption-breeding soil and condition, solve temporary and permanent issues and take a comprehensive approach toward related problems; we have established a leadership system and working mechanism for unified leadership by the Party committee, joint management by the Party and government, organization and coordination by commission for discipline inspection, assumption of respective responsibilities by departments and reliance on the masses' support and participation in the anti-corruption struggle.

Steadily Advancing the Three Fields of Work

Since the Fourth Plenum of the 13th Party Central Committee, particularly since the 15th Party National Congress, notable results have been achieved in steadily pushing forward the three fields of work, the improvement of the Party style of work, the construction of a clean and honest government and the anti-corruption struggle.

The various provisions requiring leading cadres to be clean and honest and self-disciplined have been further carried out and their administrative behavior has been constantly standardized. The "Some Guiding Principles for the CPC Leading Cadres to Exercise Clean and Honest Administration (Trial Implementation)" formulated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in 1997 concretely lay down 31 "prohibitions" relating to the administrative behavior of CPC leading cadres. Since the 15th Party National Congress, the CPC Central Committee has each year designated several key points of which the masses strongly complain, and concentrated its efforts on improvement, for example: the communication tools provided for leading cadres with public funds are cleared up; no gifts and souvenirs are allowed to be presented at conferences held by Party and government organizations; Party and government institutions are strictly forbidden to hold conferences in Lushan Mountains and 11 other scenic areas; leading cadres are forbidden to abuse their power and work post to seek illicit benefits for their spouses and children; cash gifts and negotiable securities, etc. accepted by leading cadres as well as their spouses and children are cleared up.

Notable results have been achieved in the work of the investigation and prosecution of cases of violation of discipline and laws. Statistics show that between October 1997 and May 2002, over 790,000 cases had been put on file for investigation and prosecution by discipline inspection commissions and supervisory institutions nationwide, over 780,000 of which had been closed, disciplinary measures had been taken against more than 780,000 people and economic losses of 30.1 billion yuan had been retrieved for the State. The investigation and prosecution of major and importance cases have greatly inspired the Party and the people.

The work of rectifying the unhealthy trends existing in departments and trades is being advanced steadily. Efforts are focused on the rectification of the problems, such as the unhealthy trends existing in the purchase and sale of medicine which affect the vital interests of the masses and which the society strongly complain about, the "three-aspect chaos" (indiscriminate charges, unauthorized fund-raising and arbitrary fines) existing in highways, excessive burden imposed on farmers and enterprises, and the practice of arbitrary charges existing in primary and middle schools, investigation teams have been organized to conduct overt investigations and covert visits, with remarkable results.

Eradicating Corruption-Breeding Soil

Continued efforts are being intensified to prevent and punish corruption from its source, the eradication of corruption-breeding soil is taken as a policy of fundamental to the anti-corruption struggle.

Notable progress has been achieved in the construction of a legal system for improvement of the Party style of work and construction of a clean and honest government. Statistics show that the period from the Party's 15th National Congress to the end of 2001, more than 2,000 laws and regulations as well as standard documents had been formulated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Ministry of Supervision as well as various provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), the various ministries and commissions under the State Council for the construction of Party style of work and a clean and honest government, these provisions have laid a solid foundation for preventing and curbing the breeding of corruption from its fountainhead.

In July 1998, the Party Central Committee decided that the armed forces, armed police units and political-legal organizations should, without exception, cease the activities of doing business and running enterprises. In November of that same year, the Party Central Committee again decided that the central organizations of the Party and government must, before the end of 1998, completely dissociate themselves from the economic entities they set up and the enterprises directly under their management. In the following year, local Party and government organizations at various levels also began to completely separate themselves from the enterprises they operated. Doing so strengthens the self-construction of the People's Army and State organs and reduced the conditions that generated passive and corrupt phenomena.

In order to harness corruption from its source, "administrative charges and income from imposition of fines and confiscation of funds have been managed by "separating revenue from expenditures"; in an effort to curb the breeding of corruption on the construction market, "visible construction markets" have been introduced nationwide; making village affairs, factory affairs and administrative affairs open to the public is being pushed forward steadily and has thus provided effective guarantee for preventing the generation of corruption from its source.

(People's Daily October 16, 2002)