Fighting Corruption: China's anti-graft efforts since 18th CPC National Congress

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A renewed and intensified anti-corruption campaign has swept across China since the Communist Party's last National Congress. It is not only affecting the country's public service system, but is also bringing changes to people's lives. Today our reporter Xu Zhaoqun tells us more about the public reaction to the crackdown.

A campaign targeting corrupt officials. Surprising though it may sound, restaurants have been hit particularly hard by the crackdown. This is because one of the Eight Provisions put forward by the party's Politburo in December 2012 stipulates: NO BUSINESS MEALS for officials and party cadres! For Lu Wentao, owner of Lobster House restaurant, the changes have been easy to see.

LU WENTAO RESTAURANT OWNER "Right now the business environment has changed a lot after the government's restriction. A lot of people don't want to go out, especially to the high-end restaurants."

Lavish meals at the taxpayer's expense used to be a serious problem in China, and drew considerable criticism from the general public. But since the introduction of the Eight Provisions, things have changed dramatically.

Luxury restaurants soon found they had fewer high-end customers, so many began lowering prices to attract a less wealthy clientele.

LU WENTAO RESTAURANT OWNER "After the restriction, they come to our restaurant, because we are the casual one, not that expensive, kind of a family style restaurant."

The anti-graft campaign not only places restrictions on paying for meals with public money, it also targets other recreational activities funded by the taxpayer. In fact, this campaign has a zero-tolerance policy on corruption of any type.

In 2013, over 182-thousand Party officials were officially disciplined, and this number has risen year by year. It was 232-thousand in 2014, and 336-thousand the following year. In 2016, the number of Party officials to have been disciplined rose to 415-thousand. Since 2013, a total of 1 million-165-thousand Party officials at all levels have received disciplinary punishment.

PROFESSOR WANG YUKAI CHINESE ACADEMY OF GOVERNANCE "The political ecosystem of China has changed radically since the 18th CPC National Congress. Behavior such as selling official titles, trading power for money, and forming cliques have been curbed. Now more officials who do practical work are being promoted."

XU ZHAOQUN "Fighting corruption has become one of the most impressive policies of reform since last National Congress of the Communist Party. It has also become people's hottest topic in the last five years. Xu Zhaoqun, CGTN."