Remarks by H.E. Huang Shuxian
Minister of Supervision of
the People s Republic of China
at the Anti-Corruption Summit
London, 12 May 2016
Prime Minister David Cameron,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
It gives me great pleasure to attend this summit. On behalf of the Chinese government, I wish to extend warm congratulations on the opening of the summit and sincere appreciation to our British host for all the meticulous preparation and thoughtful arrangement.
The history of corruption is as old as the human civilization. This is true in all parts of the world. The fight against corruption is thus a common task facing all countries, a task that requires shared commitment and global action. By highlighting the need for international cooperation, this summit is set to demonstrate to the world our determination to jointly combat corruption. I wish to use this opportunity to give you an update on China s anti-corruption efforts.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress in November 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the General Secretary has been advancing in a balanced fashion a four-pronged strategy geared to improve party discipline, realize initial prosperity, deepen reform and strengthen the rule of law. It has made tremendous efforts to promote Party integrity, and clean governance and curb corruption. The remarkable success of those efforts have won the Party trust and support from the people.
To be more specific, our efforts focused on several areas. Our first focus is to improve the Party s style by going after formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance. The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee issued an eight-point decision in this respect, demanding investigations into and tougher punishment for corrupt behavior such as dining and gifting with public funds, accepting gift money at weddings, funerals or other special occasions and visiting private clubs. The aim is to improve the Party s conduct and keep it close to the people. Between 2013 and 2015, 114,000 violations against the eight-point decision were investigated nationwide, exposing 150,000 Party officials, among whom 65,000 were disciplined. These efforts have visibly improved Party conduct and greatly boosted integrity of the society.
Our second focus is punishing corruption with tough measures and zero tolerance. We reaffirmed the disciplines and rules against corruption and made it clear that anyone breaking those rules will be dealt with regardless of their positions. Cases were filed by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Supervision to look into serious disciplinary violations by some senior Party officials. Between 2013 and 2015, 750,000 people were disciplined nationwide, including 36,000 facing criminal charges. Our efforts in the past three years have had an enormous deterrent effect on public officials, which marked initial success and contributed to the formation of an overwhelming momentum in the fight against corruption.
Our third focus is strengthening the supervision of officials through cross-Party inspections. The central authorities dispatched inspection teams to local authorities, government agencies, state-owned companies and government-affiliated institutions. Their task is to see whether the policies of the central authorities are faithfully implemented, particularly whether there are violations of political discipline and rules, including the eight-point decision, whether the selection of officials is rules-based and whether there is corruption. Over the past three years, these teams have visited 181 Party organizations, covering all the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, as well as all the key state-owned enterprises and financial institutions under the supervision of the central authorities. Inspection has thus become a powerful tool for intra-Party supervision, acting as an effective deterrent against corruption.
Our fourth focus is building stronger institutions to tackle corruption from its root. China has been deepening all-round reform to eliminate the breeding ground for corruption. We have been reforming government institutions and transforming their functions by streamlining administration and delegating power. Over the past three years, the government has shortened the list of matters requiring administrative approval by over 1,000 items. We have improved government transparency and introduced the lists of government power and responsibilities and the negative list for companies market access. We have enhanced the framework of anti-corruption rules, revised and issued the code of integrity and on self-discipline, regulations on disciplinary action and regulations on inspection work. We have kept emphasizing that disciplines must always come first and made it a daily routine to educate Party members about the importance of party discipline and strengthened supervision. We have made great efforts to make sure that Party members are given timely warnings whenever tendencies toward mal-practice are discovered and that discipline is strictly enforced so as to keep the majority of the Party members away from the temptation of corruption.
Our commitment to law-based governance and rule-based Party discipline is strong. We will keep to the right political course and make sure that the improvement of Party conduct and our fight against corruption will stay as an ongoing process with more in-depth progress.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
China greatly values and takes an active part in global cooperation on anti-corruption. President Xi Jinping made important remarks about anti-corruption on more than 30 key diplomatic occasions to call for closer international cooperation against transnational crimes involving corruption. The Chinese government has made cooperation and the pursuit of fugitives and recovery of criminal proceeds part of its work plan on anti-corruption and established a clear and efficient inter-agency coordination mechanism with centralized leadership structure. We are seeking to expand the channels and increase the intensity of cooperation to deliver more results.
First, we will build more platforms for international cooperation.China is a member of 15 global and regional anti-corruption cooperation mechanisms. China has actively fulfilled its obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and served as the chair of the anti-corruption working groups of APEC and the G20. China championed the adoption of the APEC Beijing Declaration on Fighting Corruption, the establishment of the APEC Network of Anti-Corruption Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies and the G20 Denial of Entry Experts Network, and pushed for the establishment of a BRICS mechanism for anti-corruption cooperation. China has maintained close communication and cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Anti-Corruption Academy, Interpol, the World Bank, the OECD and other organizations. China has anti-corruption cooperation with 89 countries and regions, concluded 44 extradition treaties and 57 treaties on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and signed financial information exchange agreements with 35 countries and regions.
Second, we will continue to go after fugitives and their illegal assets.Since 2014, the Chinese government s “Sky Net” operation has brought back 1,657 fugitives of corruption and economic crimes from 71 countries and territories and recovered illegal assets worth RMB6.29 billion. We have published a list of 100 fugitives who are on Interpol s red notice, and brought 27 of them to justice with the support of Interpol and relevant countries. China and the United Kingdom have worked together on individual cases in accordance with the UNCAC. The UK government has returned corruption-related assets worth ￡28.27 million to China s Macao SAR government. China and the United States have identified five high-profile cases and designated special teams to crack them. Two suspects have surrendered themselves to Chinese police, and another two have been convicted and sent to prison in the US.
Third, we will crack down on transnational commercial bribery. The Chinese government punishes such activities by both Chinese companies overseas and foreign companies in China. Since 2012, we have handled 14,000 commercial bribery cases valued at RMB4.4 billion.We have set