Today News, 29 October 2012

HONG KONG – China has become increasingly vigilant about ferreting out official corruption, bribe-taking and dereliction of duty, according to a report published yesterday in the state-run media.

The authorities conducted 12.7 per cent more investigations in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, the China Daily newspaper said in its lead story.

More than three-fourths of the cases were for corruption and bribery, notably in the engineering, construction, rail and transportation sectors, and also in finance and real estate, the paper said. Its article cited remarks by Mr Song Hansong, a director of the corruption prevention department of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

Mr Song cited the case of Zhou Jinhuo, a former administrator in Fujian Province who has become a kind of poster boy for official malfeasance in China. For the past half-dozen years he has often been mentioned in anti-corruption stories, editorials and Communist Party campaigns.

The Chinese authorities said Zhou took US$16 million (S$19.5 million) in bribes in exchange for the awarding of industrial and commercial contracts under his control. He wired the money abroad and then fled to the United States – following his wife, who had already obtained US residency and a Green Card. “He is still a fugitive there,” the China Daily said.

Mr Song noted that crimes involving bribery are becoming increasingly well-concealed behind layers of what might appear, at first glance, as legitimate transactions. “Bribes are offered in various ways, such as consultant fees, investment, shares, dividends, or sponsoring children studying abroad,” he said.

The Chinese business magazine Caixin reported earlier this year that China’s central bank believes as many as 18,000 officials and employees of state-owned firms have left China since the mid-1990s, fleeing with an estimated US$127 billion.

After staging its once-a-decade leadership transition next month, the party will undertake a five-year plan for eliminating corruption, state-run Xinhua news agency has reported, citing Mr He Guoqiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo. Mr He, who oversees corruption enforcement within the party, called the effort a “dynamic and long-term strategic project”.

The Xinhua report noted that “China has always paid great attention to fighting corruption and creating a clean government”, using “its own unique methods to combat corruption”.

Two disciplinary and watchdog agencies of the party said recently that nearly three-quarters of a million officials nationwide now receive anti-corruption education every year.

“Education is given through lectures, case studies and visits to historic areas, as well as attendance at court trials and talks with people who have been imprisoned for corruption,” the China Daily reported in its story about the party circular.

A county in Guangdong Province in southern China recently lectured the partners of more than 400 local officials in “how to prevent corruption”, the China Daily reported. Attendees were taught “how to resist bribes and help their incumbent husbands and wives stay clean”.

“Those attending the class”, the paper said, “thought the initiative was informative and provoked deep thoughts”. The New York Times

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China’s central bank believes up to 18,000 officials and employees of state-owned firms have left China since the mid-1990s, fleeing with some US$127 billion. BLOOMBERG

http://www.todayonline.com/World/China/EDC121030-0000025/Corruption-probes-in-China-said-to-rise-13