President Xi Jinping of China is continuing his fight against high-profile corruption. This move has led to the punishment of almost 300,000 government officials for cases of graft last year.
According to sources, 200,000 officials of the government were given light punishment while 82,000 were given severe disciplinary and major demotions. There were also 10 centrally appointed and administered officials who were given drastic demotions for violations against the Communist Party's code of conduct.
The party's graft watchdog has been using the code to track down and prevent officials from committing any acts of corruption. This watchdog is known as the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. This crackdown of corrupt officials has been President Xi's key policy though critics see it as a way to remove any political rivals in government key positions as per Telegraph.
According to IB Times, there were 26 high-ranking officials known as tigers that were nabbed and were placed under investigation for crimes of corruption. Among these tigers were China's former security chief Zhou Yongkang which was sentenced to life in prison. Liao Yongyuan, the former vice chairman of PetroChina, was also accused of accepting large amounts of bribe money.
As reported by the Asian Correspondent, a very high number of Chinese officials have been interviewed in the campaign to fight corruption but only a small number has been identified. The independent database noted only 1,567 officials have been investigated and were expelled from the party or was given sentenced.
The CDDI rarely gives the details on the evidence it uses to give accounts to the officials involved in the said corruption but reports of abuse of power and bribery have been rampant in the news all over China every single day. The issue of corruption has been huge in China and President Xi vows to tackle them regardless of their ranks in government may it be a tiger or a low-ranking officials.
