China's top disciplinary watchdog published confession videos on Friday featuring two former senior officials fingerprinting their acceptance of their punishment.
The two former officials were Wang Xiaoguang, former vice governor of Southwest China's Guizhou Province, and Zhang Shaochun, former vice minister of finance. The two were both expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and removed from their post for multiple violations, according to statement issued by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Friday.
The CCDI also published two confession videos of Wang and Zhang on its website, with each lasting about 1 minute. The videos showed the two leaving their fingerprints on a paper where they signed their signatures to show that they accepted the punishment.
In Wang's video, he wore a grey shirt and said that he firmly upheld the Party and country's punishment for him. He also said he was disloyal to the Party and traded his power for money.
In a separate video, Zhang, wearing a white shirt, said that his behaviors severely violated the Party's disciplines and the country's laws, and he confessed and repeated what he did, according to the CCDI's website.
Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, told the Global Times on Friday that the scene of the two leaving fingerprints serves as a visual impact for audiences, who are already familiar with corrupt officials' confessions that are widely broadcasted and reported.
"It also reinforced a warning and deterrence to all Party officials," Su said.
According to the CCDI, Wang was found in serious violation of the Party's political code of conduct and rules, including soliciting votes by illegal means, and other offenses include refusing to cooperate in the investigation, falsifying personal information submitted to the Party organs and taking bribes.
The investigation found that Zhang had violated the Party's political discipline, prying into information about relevant cases and refusing to cooperate in the investigation.
