China Focus: China's anti-graft drive zooms in on "flies"

An official with the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s anti-graft watchdog demanded greater efforts to uncover corruption cases at the grassroots level and penalize officials involved.

Huang Shuxian, deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC, ordered closer inspections by the commission during graft busts at a Tuesday work conference on fighting corruption.

After bringing down a number of high-level officials, known as "tigers" in the anti-corruption drive, China is zooming in on lower-level "flies" who serve at the grassroots level.

Cai Xia, professor with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said that after the downfall of "tigers," it is quite natural for the graft bust to funnel down to lower officials.

For ordinary people, misconduct by officials at the grassroots level has more direct bearing on their lives, Cai said.

Corruption at the community level mainly involves land appropriation and transfers, allocation of farmers' subsidies, and management of poverty reduction funds and subsistence allowances, Huang said, citing cases inspected by the CCDI.

Corruption and inappropriate work styles by low-level officials in these areas violate people's immediate interests, jeopardizing the Party's relationship with the masses, Huang said.

By handling the cases, the CCDI has sent a strong signal to local Party committees and local graft watchdogs, urging them to take responsibility for corruption at the grassroots level, Huang said.

Additionally, discipline inspectors will be punished harshly if caught covering for corrupt officials, according to Huang.

In May, a number of corruption cases involving village or township level officials were reported throughout the country.

In a case reported by Ningde City in southeast China's Fujian Province on May 11, Chen Qinglyu, a village official of the city's Jiaocheng District, pocketed 1.72 million yuan (277,000 U.S. dollars) from illegal sales of collectively owned land.

Shuozhou City in Shanxi Province revealed six corruption cases on May 22, all involving village officials.

In one case, Hao Wanru, a village head, was stripped of Party membership and subjected to judicial investigations for embezzling more than 40,000 yuan and swindling central government crop subsidies.

President Xi Jinping launched the unprecedented fight against graft targeting Party, government, military and state-owned enterprises soon after he came to power in late 2012.

In more than two years of the campaign, hundreds of officials have been investigated, from Zhou Yongkang, once a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, to county-level officials. Endi