Regarded as "one of the biggest threats to governance" by the CPC, corruption has always been one of the social problems that draw utmost attention from the Chinese people.

As a matter of fact, the anti-corruption efforts have been unprecedentedly intensive in 2004. At the "two sessions' this year, the once hot discussion about anti-corruption has turned to "calm contemplation".

"Anti-corruption by institution" was the focus of anti-corruption struggle in last year. The release of a series of laws and regulations, e.g., regulations on the internal supervision of the Communist Party of China, regulations on discipline actions with the party, signifies transformation from "anti-corruption by movement" and "anti-corruption by power" to "anti-corruption by institution".

Right before the opening of the "two sessions" in 2005, the CPC promulgated "compendium for punishment and prevention of corruption", which proposed to form an anti-corruption system with Chinese features by 2010.

According to China's Procurator-General Jia Chunwang's report at the NPC, procutorial organs of all level had investigated 40, 000 government employees for crimes by taking advantage of their duties in 2004. As a result, direct economic loss of 4.56 bln yuan was retrieved. Of all cases, 1, 200 were grave and important cases. About 200 cadres above bureau levels were involved in these cases.

In addition, anti-corruption work has extended from the "No.1" leader to key industries that are related to people's livelihood. "Problems that damage the masses' profit" have become new focus of the anti-corruption work. Highway construction, house demolition and relocation, purchase and sales of drugs, confiscation of lands and educational fees have all become new battlefields for anti-corruption.

The anti-corruption mechanism that is getting more and more mature has won positive comments from members and deputies of the CPPCC and NPC. Full of expectations to outlook of anti-corruption, they have begun consider orientation of the anti-corruption work calmly.

"Supervision is the key. The most important thing is combination of democratic supervision and a perfect system," the view of Ren Qixing, a CPPCC member is representative. The Chinese government has done outstanding work in building a transparent government from the "audit storm" to "affix responsibility to senior officials' errors". The members and deputies now propose to make the anti-corruption work more open and transparent, so the mass and media will be able to perform more effective supervision.

To eradicate corruption at root through reform is an important part of the anti-corruption system. Places where power and money concentrate usually breed corruption. To sever nutrition for corruption, the government must quicken transformation of functions, said Li Zuwei, general manager of the Chongqing Highway Development Co., Ltd.

To deal with corrupted leaders of SOEs, the procuratorial organs will lay emphasis on loss of state-owned assets in process of enterprise's restructuring, said Jia Chunwang in his report.

Frequent happening of corrupt officals' fleeing overseas has triggered in-depth discussion of finance systems among members and deputies of the "two sessions." The current finance supervision system of China has great flaws because it cannot track flow of funds, nor can it prohibit random opening of accounts, said Zhang Xiao, former governor of the ICBC and a deputy of the NPC Standing Committee. Another NPC deputy Chu Yaping proposed to check corruption by making assets disclosure law.

The anti-corruption work is deepening in China, and anti-corruption will remain a "hot topic" in the Chinese society.

By People's Daily Online