Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned that the country’s fight against corruption has not yet concluded and that the ruling Communist Party needs to continue to reform itself.
Speaking to senior party officials in Beijing on Wednesday, Xi warned that the Communist Party’s survival was at risk and his anti-corruption battle would “always be on the road.”
All-out efforts to enforce strict party discipline have achieved “notable results… but it is still far from being crowned with success,” the Chinese president was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua.
“The outstanding problems in the party of impure thinking, impure politics, impure organization, and impure work styles have yet to be fundamentally resolved,” Xi added.
Stressing that the ruling party faced tough and unprecedented tests to reform itself, Xi said, “We must enhance our sense of being prepared for any eventualities and sense of responsibility.”
Meritocracy & political integrity
The Chinese leader went on to say that the Communist Party needed to develop an effective system and pursue a merit-based approach to train, select, and assign government officials.
“When promoting and assigning an official, the criteria should be his or her integrity and merit, not background, and whether he or she is suitable for the position,” Xi said. “Political integrity will be the foremost criterion for selecting officials.”
The party will also enhance internal supervision and establish a system to oversee officials concerning “their faith, performance, working style, and integrity,” he added.
The Chinese president has launched an unyielding fight against deep-rooted corruption in the country since rising to power six years ago, putting an end to the career of more than 150 allegedly corrupt government officials, army generals, and state-owned enterprise executives.
Many have been formally tried, convicted, and sentenced to jail terms ranging from 12 years to life.