By Shi Bu and Liz Lee
BEIJING, Jan 12 (Reuters) – China will focus its corruption crackdown on preventing misconduct from escalating into graft, the state broadcaster said in a documentary series highlighting the crimes of a disgraced former minister.
Beijing’s “high-pressure campaign” on graft led to many high-profile investigations last year, reflecting President Xi Jinping’s unrelenting drive for more than a decade to root out corruption and enforce discipline in the ruling Communist Party.
The first episode of the CCTV-produced series titled “Unwavering in Our Resolve, Unyielding in Our Step” aired on Sunday, a day before the top anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) began an annual meeting.
The video showcased former Agriculture Minister Tang Renjian, convicted and sentenced for bribery last September, detailing his lavish banquets, entertainment and family benefits as some rural projects he was involved in were mostly abandoned.
Tang expressed remorse during his video appearance, clad in a plain black T-shirt.
“Whether it was eating and drinking in violation of regulations or having fun, I was constantly thinking about such things at that time,” he said.
“In fact, in the end, it wears down your will,” said Tang, who received a suspended death sentence after admitting to taking bribes worth more than 268 million yuan ($38 million).
The documentary also gave examples of an official from the central province of Henan who died of excessive alcohol consumption after a banquet in March, held against party rules, and two grassroots officials who exploited weaknesses in China’s pension fund system to embezzle funds.
Last year, revised austerity regulations targeting Communist Party members and public sector workers banned lavish banquets, “white elephant” infrastructure projects, luxurious car fittings and ornamental plants in work meetings.
“We must cut off the chain of interests that spreads from misconduct to corruption and build a work chain to rectify corruption,” Wang Xinqi, an official of the graft watchdog, said in the video.
“The party’s conduct is its image, affecting public support and even its very survival,” the CCTV video said.
Last year, Xi called corruption “the biggest threat” to the ruling party, in a signal that it would keep up efforts to tackle the long-running problem entrenched in parts of Chinese society.
The arrests last year ranged from the former securities regulator chief Yi Huiman, ex-chairman of China Eastern Airlines Liu Shaoyong, to nine top military leaders including the country’s No.2 general He Weidong.
China’s redoubled graft campaign may have led to arrests of many officials, but concerns remain of a lack of sufficiently strong and sustainable institutional arrangements to curb corruption in the long-term, said Alfred Wu, of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
“Although disciplinary committees appear powerful, their limited institutional independence may constrain their ability to effectively address corruption at the local level,” he said.
Independent oversight mechanisms may deliver more enduring success than a campaign-style approach, added Wu, an associate professor.
($1=6.9749 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Shi Bu and Liz Lee; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Clarence Fernandez)
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