China’s ruling Communist Party says it has probed almost 5 million members for possible corruption over the last decade, with formal criminal cases brought against 553.
Whether that will curb an widening economic slowdown and restore faith in the authoritarian system remains unclear.
The party has 96 million members and has long run its own internal system of keeping cadres in line through a mix of offering privileges and threatening severe punishment for taking bribes, selling offices or otherwise abusing their authority.
At a new briefing yesterday on the sidelines of the party’s national congress deputy secretary of the party’s Committee for Discipline and Inspection Xiao Pei said 207,000 party officials in total had been handed some form of punishment in the 10 years since party leader Xi Jinping took power.
Xiao said figures show most of those caught up by anti-graft investigators had been long-term offenders and just 11% of those punished had committed their first offense in the past five years.
