Chinese daily calls for sustained anti-graft efforts

Beijing, April 11 (IANS) An opinion piece in the People's Daily Wednesday called for confidence in China's fight against corruption despite the fact that it is a "long-term, complex and arduous task".

The flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC) published the opinion piece, warning against new methods of corruption, which make anti-graft work even more difficult.

"Some corrupt individuals instruct their spouses, children, mistresses, friends or even relatives to receive bribes on their behalf, or receive remarkable personal bonuses through facilitating third-party business activities," said the article.

"Some deliberately commit corruption overseas, transfer embezzled money and assets abroad, or secretly obtain citizenship from foreign countries," reported Xinhua citing comment-piece.

The article said that highly desirable resources, such as land and minerals, have become increasingly popular, while infrastructure projects, state-owned enterprises and financial institutions have long been corruption-prone sectors.

Corruption remains stubbornly high in the judiciary along with governmental departments, as they have the power of administrative examination and approval, it said.

"A lot of corrupt officials are becoming even more creative as they try to evade investigation, for example disguising bribes by folding them into joint ventures or entrusted investments," the article said.

However, the opinion piece claimed that the public should still have full confidence in the CPC-led anti-corruption work, because the Party has the resolution to succeed, and its strong leadership will prevail.

The CPC, according to its nature and mission, does not tolerate corruption in any form, it said.

It also called upon the people to personally support and actively take part in anti-corruption efforts by exposing more corrupt officials through Internet-based reporting mechanisms.