Nobody is above the law: People's Daily

The handling of Zhou Yongkang's corruption case is a testament to the Communist Party of China's anti-graft determination and is in line with rule according to the law, reads a People's Daily commentary.

Zhou was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes, abusing his power and deliberately disclosing state secrets, with his political rights deprived for life and personal assets confiscated, the Tianjin Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled on Thursday.

"Party discipline and national law apply to all within the Communist Party of China (CPC). As a former Party and state leader, Zhou took the path of crime, causing huge losses to the Party and the people and severely harming the Party's image and the sanctity of the law," says the article to be published Friday.

"He must be severely punished in accordance with the law," it adds.

According to the court judgment, Zhou took bribe of about 130 million yuan (21.3 million U.S. dollars), and took advantage of his position to seek profits for five persons identified as Wu Bing, Ding Xuefeng, Wen Qingshan, Zhou Hao and Jiang Jiemin, and accepted money and property worth 731,100 yuan from Jiang.

Zhou was informed after the fact that his wife Jia Xiaoye and son Zhou Bin had accepted money and property worth 129 million yuan.

"Judging the case from filing, investigation, prosecution, hearing and sentence, the entire process was based on facts and the law... It showed that, no matter how much power one had and how high one's position was, one would surely be severely punished for violating Party discipline and state laws," the article says.

No organizations or individuals have the privilege over Party discipline and the law, according to the commentary.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012, the leadership has stressed anti-corruption as a "life-or-death matter" for the Party and the nation, boosting the people's confidence in and support for the Party by maintaining an intense crackdown on corruption, the article goes on.

The article also notes that making anti-corruption a "systematic part" of the overall governance of the country is "the fundamental direction" for clean politics, urging Party groups at all levels to voluntarily keep power in check.

"With the united effort from the entire Party, the vigorous support from the people and the solid foundation of the legal system..., we will certainly win this arduous and persistent war against corruption," the article adds. Endi