BEIJING, July 20 -- Chinese authorities on Sunday announced intense ideological education for officials to strengthen their faith in communism and curb corruption.

Profound social-economic changes at home and abroad have brought multiple distractions to officials who face loss of faith and moral decline, said the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in a statement.

The conviction and morals of officials determine the rise and fall of the CPC and the country, it added. Officials should keep firm belief in Marxism to avoid being lost in the clamor for western democracy, universal values and civil society, according to the statement.

Education in national and world conditions will be carried out among officials to strengthen their political, ideological and emotional identity in socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The authorities pledged to improve officials' morals, calling on them to be noble, pure and virtuous persons who have relinquished vulgar tastes.

"Chinese officials should safeguard the spiritual independence of the nation and avoid becoming an echo of western moral values," it warned.

In China's far-reaching anti-corruption drive, several officials have been stripped of their CPC membership and official posts for committing adultery, a discipline violation that has been largely ignored in the last few decades.

The word appeared again recently when the CPC discipline watchdog announced investigations of vice governor of Hainan Province Ji Wenlin and former senior political advisor of Hunan Province Yang Baohua.