President Xi promises harsher anti-corruption drive

BEIJING, Jan. 14 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday stressed that the anti-graft fight is vital for the Party's integrity in the long term, urging independent and authoritative supervision from disciplinary agencies.

"Preventing the Party from being corrupted in its long-term rule of the country is a major political mission. And we must do it right," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, when addressing the third plenary session of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) that opened Monday.

He stressed zero tolerance of graft and promised to seriously punish every corrupt official being caught.

Xi urged efforts to ensure "relatively independent and authoritative supervisory power" of disciplinary agencies at all levels.

Authorities should reform the Party's disciplinary inspection system, improve the anti-graft mechanism and enhance the checks and supervision of power, he said.

"Do not let regulations become 'paper tigers' or 'scarecrows,'" he went on, adding that endeavors would be intensified to hold officials accountable for wrongdoing.

"Every CPC official should keep in mind that all dirty hands will be caught," he said. "Senior officials should hold Party disciplines in awe and stop taking chances."

In 2013, the Party leadership struck hard on corruption and made major progress, Xi said.

"The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee set the example for lower officials," according to Xi.

The country brought down both "tigers" and "flies," metaphors for senior and low-ranking corrupt officials, and mounted high pressure on corrupt officials, he told his audience.

The CPC tightened supervision and inspection on the use of power and expanded channels for the public to supervise and report corrupt officials, which earned positive feedback from the people, Xi added.

According to the CCDI, discipline inspection agencies punished about 182,000 officials nationwide in 2013, 13.3 percent more than in 2012. Thirty-one high-profile officials were investigated by the CCDI itself and eight of them were handed over to prosecutors.