Focus of Sixth Plenum on Party discipline

No haven for corrupt officials

The "depravation dairies" of many senior corrupt officials highlighted in the recently aired eight-part documentary, Corruption Fight is Always Underway, add weight to the fact that there is no haven for the corrupt, says Xinhua News Agency. Excerpts:

There is no "safe haven" for criminals. That some disgraced officials have eventually turned themselves in and regretted fleeing the country to escape punishments underscores this vital point.

They might have assumed that fleeing to a foreign country would help them get away with their misdeeds. But their fantasy has proved wrong. In his confession, Wang Guoqiang, a former top official in Fengcheng, Northeast China's Liaoning province, described his stay in the United States as a corrupt outlaw as "desperate", because he feared being caught whenever he was in a public place. He turned himself in two years after he fled in 2012.

Other interviewed corrupt officials who were once at large narrated stories similar to Wang's. Constant fear and guilt aside, those who are yet to be caught have more reasons to face due punishments, as China doubles its efforts to get the corrupt fugitives repatriated by intensifying its cooperation with other countries to end cross-border crimes and corruption.

Holding corrupt officials accountable is in the interest of both China and the international community. The Chinese government's global manhunt for fugitives is being supported by an increasing number of countries, because none of them would like to be called a haven for criminals.

And officials should remember, no one is above the law however high his or her rank is.

Supervision must be very strict

The Sixth Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee has injected fresh momentum into the country's anti-corruption campaign in the context of intra-Party supervision, says Li Yongzhong, former vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Discipline Inspection and Supervision, in an article published on news.ifeng.com. Excerpts:

The plenum approved two documents on the norms of political life within the Party and intra-Party supervision, in order to ensure power wielded by officials is indeed put in the institutional cage.

Power, without checks, leads to corruption. In other words, no matter how many corrupt officials are arrested and punished, more will emerge unless the power structure and personnel management system are overhauled.