China to conduct anti-graft probes for all major SOEs

Spotlight to be put on directors, managers in power positions

China's anti-graft authorities will conduct inspections of all major State-owned enterprises this year, according to a statement from the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which closed on Wednesday morning.

"SOE operations are closely related to national economic security, and corruption causes huge losses and seriously threatens Party rule," said Hao Mingjin, vice-minister of supervision under the commission.

The statement said the authorities will enhance their inspections of SOEs, especially of directors and managers in key positions.

Authorities will also strengthen SOE audits, while perfecting a mechanism to oversee assets and enhance supervision.

Since November 2012, when the new leadership was elected, President Xi Jinping has conducted a widening campaign to combat corruption.

Since then, the top anti-graft authority has conducted five rounds of inspections of all 31 Chinese mainland provinces and regions and 39 central authorities and businesses, including SOEs, to gather information on corrupt officials.

The commission said more than 70 senior directors of SOEs were investigated last year on suspicion of corruption, 59 percent more than a year earlier.

The majority of SOE corruption suspects had charge of valuable resources, including petroleum, gas, coal and electricity.

In addition, some SOE directors made illegal decisions that caused huge losses of State-owned assets. They also abused their power to arrange for their spouses and children to operate businesses, or to gain benefits for other enterprises in return for huge bribes, according to the commission.

Gao Bo, deputy secretary of the China Anti-Corruption Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "The awareness of SOE directors should be raised to build up clean government, and we should set up a permanent mechanism to punish corrupt offenders."

At the session, it was also decided to expel from the Party Shen Weichen, former vice-chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, and Liang Bin, former minister of the Organization Department of the Hebei Provincial Committee.