Party watchdog's report depicts increase in disciplinary violations
A total of 138,867 Chinese officials have been punished in a frugality campaign since it was launched by the top disciplinary watchdog in late 2012. The extent of the campaign reflects the necessity of harsher measures against the backdrop of a year-on-year increase in disciplinary violations during the nationwide anti-corruption drive, experts said.
Seven provincial and ministerial-level officials were among those punished in 104,934 cases involving violations over the past three years, according to a report by the Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China on Thursday.
Beijing-based newspaper The Mirror, said that the incidence of two violations - use of public funds for dining and for travel unrelated to official duties - had increased by 278 percent and 221 percent year-on-year, respectively, by October 31.
Hosting lavish weddings and funerals, spending public money on dining and travel, and giving and receiving illicit gifts were among the uncovered violations, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Although the report indicates the determination and high efficiency of the CCDI's fight against graft, the increasing number of violations demands more effective measures to root out the problem, Xu Yaotong, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times.
Xu said that the poor implementation of regulations by local authorities has also led to the increase in violations, adding that some officials choose to take their chances with graft, thinking that they will not be the "lucky one" spotted among thousands of their colleagues.
Inspections also delve into the daily lives of officials.
The CCDI warned officials against unseemly behavior during holidays such as Mid-Autumn Festival. The watchdog forbade the use of public funds to buy mooncakes and opened a whistle-blowing section specifically for this violation on its website in 2014 and 2015.
However, some austerity rules have already sparked controversy and complaints among officials. Gan Chaoying, a law professor with Peking University, told the Global Times that the receipt of legitimate benefits by officials should be differentiated from corruption.
Although people support the anti-graft drive, they oppose the cancelation of legitimate welfare in the name of countering corruption, said a commentary published on the mobile news app of the People's Daily in September 2014.
During the three-year adoption of the Eight-Point Rules, the CCDI has introduced a series of measures to deal with undesirable work habits, including the establishment of a monthly reporting system in August 2013 to monitor the implementation of frugality rules nationwide, Xinhua reported.
Gan said that more supervision from the media could trigger more public participation in the anti-graft campaign.
Gan cited the case of Yang Dacai, a work safety official in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, as an example. Yang received a 14-year sentence for bribery and corruption in 2012 after he was exposed on social media for wearing at least 11 different luxury watches, inciting a crowd-sourced investigation by Net users.
