China makes new progress in anti-graft fight in 2018

China's top graft-buster Zhao Leji said that new progress had been achieved in the work of disciplinary inspection and supervision in 2018.

Zhao, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), made the remarks while delivering a work report at the third plenary session of the 19th CCDI of the CPC on Jan. 11. The report was made public on Wednesday.

A total of 25,000 officials, including 29 centrally-administrated officials, were punished for violating political discipline in 2018, according to the work report.

Reform of the disciplinary inspection and supervision system has been deepened. The adoption of Supervision Law and establishment of the National Supervisory Commission in 2018 have ensured that supervision covers everyone working in the public sector who exercises public power, says the report.

Efforts have been made to implement the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct and address the practice of formalities for formalities' sake, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance in the past year, according to the report.

The CCDI and the National Supervisory Commission named and shamed officials involved in 50 cases for violating the frugality code of conduct, and 92,000 CPC members across the country were punished for such violations in 2018, according to the report.

A sweeping victory in the fight against corruption has been secured. In 2018, 68 centrally-administrated officials were investigated by the CCDI and the National Supervisory Commission. Among them, 15 officials have been transferred to judicial organs for suspected crimes.

Since the 19th CPC National Congress, more than 5,000 Party members involved with wrongdoing have surrendered themselves to authorities, including centrally-administrated officials.

An initiative called "Sky Net" saw 1,335 fugitives being returned from overseas in 2018, recovering 3.54 billion yuan (524 million U.S. dollars).

Anti-graft agencies also intensified their efforts to address corruption that occurs on the people's doorsteps, punishing 309,000 people. A total of 1,899 officials who had sheltered criminal organizations have been transferred to judicial organs.

The disciplinary inspection commissions and supervision agencies have rolled out measures to strengthen self-oversight. More than 3,900 anti-graft busters were punished for misconduct and over 110 transfered to judicial organs in 2018.