China, a country striving for harmonious development, and focused on taking its rightful place as one of the world's most powerful countries, is fighting a battle within.

Andrew London

It is fighting corruption; a seething cancer that has slowly eaten away at the reputation of what is otherwise a good country with good people.

Corruption is a hard battle to fight. The enemy isn't always easy to track down and in China experience has shown that the enemy has long lurked in the shadows of its own hallowed halls of officialdom.

Stories of officials being caught red-handed have often appeared on the pages of China Daily, a fairly clear demonstration the country intends to show the world it is doing all it can to 'clean house'.

And there comes the second battle, the public relations campaign to challenge foreign perceptions that not enough is being done to weed out corrupt elements.

China makes no secret about how it deals with corruption.

The threat of very lengthy jail terms for those guilty of graft, and sometimes execution, sends a very clear signal to anyone tempted to 'skim from the top' to think twice.

Earlier this year Zheng Xiaoyu, the former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, China's drug watchdog, was executed. Zheng was found guilty of taking 6.49 million yuan (US$850,000) in bribes and dereliction of duty. Six different sub-standard medicines were approved by the administration while he was at the helm, products that later resulted in several unintentional fatalities.

He was the country's fourth senior official of his rank to be sentenced to death in recent years. Punishment aside, the country has also taken some concrete administrative steps to fight corruption.