China’s President Xi Jinping has declared victory in his anti-graft fight, saying that the campaign to root out inherent corruption within the ruling Communist Party will continue.
Xi announced at a meeting of the party’s politburo on Friday that the campaign had now achieved an “overwhelming victory,” state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The report further quoted a politburo statement as saying, “We must forcefully reduce the number of cases and effectively stop them from growing.”
The Chinese president underlined that efforts to overhaul China’s extensive anti-graft architecture must continue to modernize the systems of oversight for party members as well as state employees.
Xi proclaimed during a twice-a-decade meeting of senior Communist Party leadership back in October 2017 that his battle against corruption had attained “overwhelming momentum.”
The Chinese broadcaster further emphasized that the shift from “momentum” to “victory” reflects a significant judgment from the party leadership.
Xi had previously vowed to wage war on graft until corruption of all kinds has been expunged at all levels of the ruling party, from high-level “tigers” to low-level “flies.”
Beijing’s powerful graft investigators have reportedly handled 464,000 cases and punished 406,000 people in the first nine months of 2018.
Back in October, China’s Public Security Ministry announced that the former head of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) had been placed under investigation on suspicion of bribery.
The ministry further added in a statement that Meng Hongwei had “accepted bribes and is suspected of violating the law,” describing the investigation as “very timely, absolutely correct and rather wise.”
In an earlier statement, Beijing’s anti-corruption watchdog, the National Supervisory Commission, had also noted that Meng -- who was also China’s vice minister for public security -- is under probe on suspicion of “violating the law.”
The newly established commission was officially launched in March, expanding the anti-graft campaign to all state employees and granting legal support to Communist Party’s internal investigation and incarceration measures.