Beijing [China], April 18 : China's top antigraft's grip over corruption has intensified as 17 centrally administered officials are being investigated in about 100 days since the beginning of 2023, The Global Times reported.
According to the Global Times, from January 6 to April 16, at least 17 centrally administered officials have been put under investigation. In March, the highest number of people was investigated which was seven, according to the official website of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission.
Among the 17 officials under investigation, some of them have been investigated after they retired, left office or resigned from their original posts.
Corruption has become a significant problem in China, impacting all aspects of administration, law enforcement, healthcare and education, Hardika Sharma writes in Indo-Pacific Centre for Strategic Communications. (IPCSC)
Corruption is basically referred to as the abuse of political power for private ends, which is typically by the Chinese Communist Party, which holds the majority of power in the country. Since 2012, approximately 3 million officials have been implicated in the anti-corruption movement, which has focused on the judiciary, finance sector, and law enforcement, among others.
In China, corruption has developed in two major ways, one is in the form of the ostensibly legal official expenditure, which is seen as wasteful and is directed toward private benefits. While another mode is where many corrupt local officials turn their jurisdictions into virtual "mafia states," where they collude with criminal elements and unsavoury businessmen in illegal activities, according to Hardika Sharma, who wrote this piece in IPCSC.
There are far fewer checks and balances, especially in the still murky state-run sector, where the lines between Party, politics and business are blurred.
Recently, unconfirmed sources suggest that high-ranking CCP members and provincial portfolio holders have been accused of violation of discipline and law (a term mostly used by the CCP to hide the corruption cases in the Party).
According to Hasdika Sharma, Liu Zhenyu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Committee of Hunan Province and executive deputy governor of the state people's government has been accused of serious corruption and is being investigated by Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline, Inspection and Supervision.
Liu Zhenyu spent a considerable amount of time in their early years working at the Taiwan Work Office of the Hunan Province Party Committee as the director of the Comprehensive Research Division, the Liaison and Communication Division, and the Economic Division. He was the secretary of the Jishou Municipal Party Committee in April 2014 and a member of the Xiangxi Prefecture Party Committee's Standing Committee. He was promoted to the position of deputy governor in April 2020.
Long Xiaohua, the former deputy secretary of the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Committee of Hunan Province and the former governor of the prefecture people's government has also been accused of corruption and is facing investigation. He relinquished his charge of Governor in December 2022 and now his CCP membership has also been abrogated, according to IPCSC.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor