Chinese delegation joins global anti-corruption summit

By Fu Jing in London (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-05-12 18:34

TV set live broadcasting the summit in the media centre in London, May 12, 2016. [Photo by Fu Jing/chinadaily.com.cn]

China's Minister of Supervision, Huang Shuxian, joined dozens of world leaders and high-level officials today in London at the Anti-Corruption Summit in an effort to inject new impetus into global efforts to coordinate the fight against corruption.

Huang is expected to share China's tough stance in the fight against corruption, and its commitment to join global cooperation at the less than six-hour summit, which will end with a joint declaration.

Among the leaders are Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and UK's Prime Minister David Cameron, who revealed Britain's fresh commitment earlier today to avoid money laundering when foreign companies buy properties here.

The summit has focused on the cost of corruption, as well as how to expose, punish and drive it out. But a focused session on sport is also scheduled to improve transparency in international sports governance.

While the UK is pushing global efforts, China's measures have already attracted attention from international community.

Bernard Dewit, chairman of the Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce said the Chinese leadership has already put anti-corruption high on agenda on the basis that the rule of law applies to everyone, which has impressed the world.

"The efforts in this campaign should be continued but with the respect of the law, which will help foreign investors to have more confidence in the institutions of the country where they invest, as well as their local partners," said Dewit.

"Therefore anti-corruption campaign can reassure foreign investors about the protection of their investments in China."

Christos Vlachos, managing partner at Silky Finance, a consultancy company in Athens, said Beijing has actively pursued an anti-corruption crusade in tandem with a worldwide effort to eradicate unethical practices in the conduct of business.

"The severe punishment of culprits has had a marked effect in improving the investment environment," said Vlachos, who has amassed years of business contacts with Chinese partners.

"The London summit is an occasion for Beijing to deepen global cooperation and facilitate experience exchanges. More transparency and the rule of law can undoubtedly have a positive influence for the global business environment as well," Vlachos said.

In recent interview, Fang Ning, director of Institute of Political Science of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Chinese leadership's determination and iron-fist approach to fighting corruption is a dominating development of this country during past three years after Xi Jinping took office as the highest leader of the Party and the state.

"To ensure the success in this regard, China has made breakthrough in strengthening the power of supervision within the Party and the state," said Fang. "And this is also in line with the trends of development in industrialized countries."

China's political system has brought the powers of administration, law-making and jurisdiction under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

"Now the power of supervision has been beefed up in China, which aims to ensure a smooth law enforcement and a means to tackle corruption effectively," said Fang.

Within the Party, the power of the related departments in charge of discipline and inspections, and for the government, the power of the departments in charge of supervision have been strengthened, said Fang.

At the same time, the Party has achieved reform by sending inspection teams to nearly all departments and organizations at various levels to find clues of corruption and "clean the houses" of Party units.

"All the new measures have brought corruption under control," said Fang.

But he said in the years to come, the power of supervision will further be boosted within the Party and state.

"Supervision within all the political and economic activities is curbing corruption, and such power has achieved a certain independence " said Fang.

"I personally believe this is the biggest political change since Xi Jinping led the Party and the country."

To contact the reporter: fujing@chinadaily.com.cn