The Communist Party of China (CPC) remains resolute in its fight against corruption as part of broader efforts to advance full and rigorous Party self-governance, according to Party officials.
At a plenum that concluded Thursday, the CPC Central Committee adopted a resolution on persevering with full and rigorous Party self-governance, stressing the need to maintain a tough stance against corruption and strengthen checks on and oversight over the exercise of power.
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee also called for fortifying the cultural-ethical foundations for championing integrity and disdaining graft, and enhancing coordinated efforts to ensure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity, or desire to commit corruption.
“The anti-graft fight remains a grave and complex challenge, and much remains to be done to eliminate the conditions and fertile ground that give rise to corruption,” senior anti-graft official Zhang Fuhai said on Friday at a press conference held by the CPC Central Committee on the guiding principles from the plenum.
Since 2012, discipline inspection and supervisory organs across the country have filed 8.105 million cases and punished 7.922 million people, including 963 officials registered with and supervised by the CPC Central Committee, said Zhang, deputy secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and deputy head of the National Commission of Supervision.
China has over the years launched an unprecedented anti-graft campaign that has reached every level of the Party and government, netting both high-ranking “tigers” and lower-level “flies.”
Some of the most senior officials — including former members of the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee, senior military officials, and retirees who left their leading positions years ago — have been brought to justice.
The campaign has continued unabated. In 2025 alone, 115 officials at ministerial level or above were placed under investigation, while 627,000 people were disciplined in cases involving misconduct and graft that affect the people’s immediate interests. The same year, China also opened investigations into more than 500 cases of cross-border corruption.
It was noted at the plenum this week that the Party must steadfastly follow a distinctive Chinese path of anti-graft and strengthen the Party Central Committee’s centralized, unified leadership over anti-corruption work.
“We must take systematic steps to address both symptoms and root causes of corruption and adopt a holistic approach that combines severe punishment, targeted remedy, and effective prevention, carrying this fight through to the end,” said a communique issued after the plenary session.
Zhang said anti-graft authorities will, in line with the arrangements made at the plenum, resolutely win the battle against corruption. “This is a battle that we cannot afford to lose and must never lose.”
The plenum pledged to take targeted, well-designed measures to select and appoint officials, inspire them to foster and act on the correct view of performance, and enhance their competence in fulfilling duties and breaking new ground.
Huang Jianfa, deputy head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at the press conference that strict discipline is not intended to stifle initiative or constrain officials’ actions.
“Rather, it seeks to set clear direction, enforce rules, promote sound conduct and guard against corruption, fostering a clean political environment and enabling officials to take initiative in their work,” he said.
The resolution stresses that everyone is equal before the rules, no one enjoys privileges and no exceptions are allowed in their enforcement, said Xie Chuntao, vice president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.
It also calls for enforcement and oversight to be integrated into every stage of the work of Party organizations, members and officials, ensuring that institutional rules remain authoritative at all times and effective at every level, Xie said at the press conference.
FULL, RIGOROUS PARTY SELF-GOVERNANCE
The plenum made systematic plans for persevering with full and rigorous Party self-governance.
Key priorities include strengthening the Party spirit, improving conduct and tightening discipline, taking firm and coordinated action against corruption, running the Party with systems and regulations, and refining Party and state oversight systems.
With over 100 million members, the Party has attached great importance to its own building since it was founded in 1921, said Liu Haixing, a member of the CPC Central Committee and head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee.
For 105 years, he added, Party members have treated Party building as a great project, pressing ahead one generation after another — forging and tempering the Party into the great, glorious and correct CPC that stands today.
“The Party demonstrates the strong vitality of Marxism,” he said.
As profound changes unseen in a century gather pace across the world, political parties around the globe are confronting a stream of new issues and challenges.
“Many political parties are turning their eyes to us in the hope of finding paths and solutions for reference,” said Liu.
That attention, he noted, attests to the valuable experience the CPC has accumulated during the periods of revolution, development and reform — experience that progressive forces around the world can draw on.
Wu Hansheng, head of the Society Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, underscored the importance of Party building in emerging sectors.
Wu’s department will work to expand the coverage of Party organizations in these sectors, strengthen Party building and improve services and management for people in new forms of employment.
Built on internet platforms, new forms of employment now engage some 84 million workers nationwide, including couriers, ride-hailing drivers and e-commerce workers.
Zhong Baijun, party chief of Xijidang Village in Lianyungang City in east China’s Jiangsu Province, who attended the plenum as a non-voting participant, said that for communities like the one he leads, the latest arrangements from the meeting mean power at the micro level must be kept in check, affairs handled fairly, and petty graft close to the people rooted out.
The aim, he said, is to win public trust with integrity and clean governance.
“Weeds don’t stop growing just because you’ve pulled them once,” said Zhong, adding that the same goes for the Party’s full and rigorous self-governance.
Source: Xinhua
