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China’s Communist Party
ChinaPolitics

Xi Jinping tells China’s corruption hunters to show no mercy in ‘severe and complex’ battle

  • As the anti-corruption campaign enters its 11th year, the Chinese leader calls for ‘heavier punishments’ and a focus on ‘high-risk’ areas
  • Finance, pharmaceuticals, state-owned businesses and infrastructure are among the sectors in the party watchdog’s sights in 2024

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Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s third plenary session on Monday. Photo: Xinhua
Sylvie Zhuangin Beijing
The battle against corruption remains “severe and complex” and there should be “absolutely no mercy” in rooting out the problem, Chinese President Xi Jinping has told the country’s top graft-busters.
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“Facing an ongoing severe and complex situation, [the crackdown on] corruption can never turn back or slacken, [people should] show absolutely no mercy and the charge must be forever sounded,” he said on Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

In a speech to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on the first day of its third plenary session, Xi kicked off the 11th year of his signature anti-corruption campaign with a call to deepen the clean-up drive.

The campaign, which has netted thousands of officials since 2013, last year intensively targeted the country’s vast and opaque financial and healthcare sector.

This year, the focus should be on “high-risk areas”, such as finance, state-owned businesses, energy, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure and engineering, said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party.

Xi called on the CCDI cadres to “fully centralise funds and resources to … clean up hidden risks, punish bribes and corruption” to give people “a greater sense of gains”, according to the CCTV report.

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