Top > World > 2006 > January > 2006-01-09

China Begins anti-Corruption Drive

In the face of rising discontent over corruption which has been found to be rife throughout the People`s Republic from the villages to the big cities, China`s senior Communist Party leaders in Beijing called on Party members Saturday to work harder to stop bribery among businessmen and local officials in the country`s thousands of cities, counties and villages.

"More anti-corruption education will be carried out among grass-roots officials, while the procedures for selecting officials for promotion will be stricter," said a communique from China`s President Hu Jintao. "The fight against corruption is a long-term, complicated and arduous task."

China is in the process from moving from a psuedo-socialist system to a market economy, and corruption has risen in part from the increased ability of people to carry it out. Even so, corruption involving high level officials of China is nothing new, and the new campaign may be seen in part as an effort to combat such a threat to the government once and for all.