Over the past five years, the Communist Party of China's anti-corruption watchdog has been leading a series of high-profile investigations into top officials. One was Zhou Yongkang, a member of 17th Politburo Standing Committee. The watchdog has largely kept a low profile, until today, at the Party's National Congress, when it briefed the media on its achievements. Han Peng reports.

 

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection says in the last five years, the Party stopped what many believed was unstoppable – the widespread disease of corruption.

 

YANG XIAODU, DEPUTY SECRETARY CENTRAL COMMISSION FOR DISCIPLINE INSPECTION We must admit there was a period of time when the Party was too soft, loose and lenient against corrupt officials and Party members. The loopholes gave people like Sun Zhengcai, the former Party chief of Chongqing, a chance to rise to power. But the Communist Party of China never dodges from problems. Since the anti-corruption campaign started five years ago, it became harder and harder for corrupt officials to stay in power, let alone be promoted to high ranks.

 

Over the past five years, more than a million officials have been punished for violating the law or Party disciplines. A total of 440 ministerial and provincial level officials have been brought to account.

 

And more than 3,000 fugitives accused of corruption were caught, including 48 of the 100 most wanted on the Interpol's Red Notice list.

 

DR. ROBERT LAWRENCE KUHN CHINA GLOBAL TV NETWORK I'm Lawrence Kuhn from China Global Television Network. The international analysts often point out that it's impossible for ruling Parties to self-discipline without independent checks and balances. And in fact for any human organizations, it's impossible to do. Moreover, the Party has the anti-corruption campaign for decades, yet the problem had continued. So the question is: Why is now different, particularly after the 18th Party Congress?

 

YANG XIAODU, DEPUTY SECRETARY CENTRAL COMMISSION FOR DISCIPLINE INSPECTION We are now combining intra-party supervision with the scrutiny from the public and the state. For example, since President Xi took office, we are setting up a new government department – the supervision ministry, and drawing up a new supervision law. This will help strengthen the supervision from the state under the rule of law.

 

HAN PENG BEIJING Over the past five years, some Western media have kept criticizing that China's sweeping anti-corruption campaign is no more than just a power struggle inside the Communist Party. But Chinese authorities denied the accusation, saying everything in the campaign strictly follows the laws and Party disciplines.

 

YANG XIAODU, DEPUTY SECRETARY CENTRAL COMMISSION FOR DISCIPLINE INSPECTION Besides laws, party disciplines are also crucial in preventing corruption. The disciplines applying to our Party members are stricter than laws to the citizens. So no matter how small a violation we find, we warn or punish the officials, with the hopes of reminding and preventing them from sliding further into corruption. It's a remedy both to their own careers and public interest at the same time.

 

The Party says the tough campaign against corruption will continue in the next five years. Han Peng, CGTN, Beijing.