An anti-graft law will help nation put power in a cage

A book about Chinese president Xi Jinping's remarks on anti-corruption.[Photo/IC]

At the second plenary session of the ongoing session of National People's Congress, held on Sunday, the Standing Committee delivered their work report, which promoted accelerating the legislation on key issues. Among its plans, that of an anti-graft law, which has long been called for, has attracted special attention. Comments:

After two years of high pressure, corruption has been, temporarily at least, curbed, with large groups of senior corrupt officials or "tigers" and lower level corrupt "flies" being removed from key positions. Now it is time to start the building an anti-graft system so as to prevent rampant corruption from appearing again.

Beijing Youth Daily, March 9

The idea of an anti-graft law has been widely welcomed by the public, because currently there are only limited numbers of Party discipline, which are fragmented into various regulations and contradict each other. Over the decades, corrupt officials have used these loopholes to lighten the punishments for their colleagues who get prosecuted. A single anti-graft law will plug the loopholes and make sure corrupt officials get their deserved punishments.

Southern Metropolis Daily, March 10

In 2013, Shantou and Zhuhai cities, two special economic zones in Guangdong province, South China, passed anti-graft regulations that contained detailed columns on the disclosure of the property owned by officials and prohibited luxurious spending at the public expense. Many developed countries have their laws, too; both domestic and international examples can be resorted to in drafting China's national anti-graft law.

people.com.cn, March 11

An anti-corruption law should not only define what deeds constitute corruption and what penalties officials deserve for committing them, but also properly regulate power and prevent officials from abusing their powers from the bottom up.

Wang Changjiang, a researcher at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, March 11

It was in 1999 that an NPC member first proposed an anti-graft law; over the following years, there have been public calls for the officials to disclose their property ownership and a prohibition on officials' family members from running businesses related to the power they have access to, but all failed to materialize. Currently, with rampant corruption being temporarily curbed, a precious opportunity of drafting anti-graft law has emerged. Please do not let it go.

haiwainet.cn, March 10