Despite worries about the damage corruption does to the Communist Party's reputation, efforts to stamp it out remain half-hearted
Corruption, Chinese officials often fret out loud, could destroy the Communist Party—such is the popular anger it provokes and so at odds is it with the ideals the party espouses. Yet frequent crackdowns and the occasional toppling of sleazy officials appear to have little impact. Nor, many fear, will a new anti-corruption agency, due to be set up this year. As they jockey for position before a crucial party gathering in the autumn, China's leaders are in no mood for serious reform.
In Shanghai and Beijing, where big corruption scandals involving top officials have been exposed in recent months, new cases of alleged high-level wrongdoing are still coming to light. In Beijing the state-owned media reported last week that Zhou Liangluo, the chief of Haidian district, home to many of the city's universities and high-tech companies, had been detained for allegedly engaging in shady property deals. In Shanghai it emerged earlier this month that Yin Guoyuan, a former deputy head of the housing bureau, was being investigated for similar reasons.
Despite the anxious rhetoric, the party is not on the brink of collapse. But the scandals of the past few months have stoked debate within its ranks and more widely in China about the need for better ways of dealing with corruption.
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