China Punishes 20,000 Officials in Crackdown on Rampant Corruption
China revealed that roughly 20,000 officials of the nation's Communist Party have been punished or reprimanded over the past year in reaction to the Chinese citizens growing angry over rampant waste and corruption.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who announced last year that he would reduce government bureaucracy, has made good on his promise while trying to minimize the lavish lifestyles of members of the Chinese government.
Still some are skeptical that the number of arrests was more eye-catching than those who were punished.
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Of the 20,000 officials China is targeting 300 held county-level government or Party committees posts, according to a report by China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), a government watch-dog group.
However, the report added that much of the other politicians punished held village-level positions, Russia's RT news network reported.
"A clean leadership in rural areas is crucial to a harmonious society, as China is a country with large agricultural lands and a rural population of 900 million," read the CCDI document statement, RT.com noted.
Many of the officials that were punished were found to have broken the Party's rules were given administrative or internal party punishments, as reported by Reuters.
The report stated that 5,000 officials were cited for misusing their state-provided cars, while another 1,000 held lavish events that were in conflict with party protocol.
Accompanying the crackdown, the Chinese president also set forth new policies that reportedly shortened over-the-top ceremonies and abandoned the meaningless speeches that apparently accompanied them, Reuters reported.
Though most of the punishments were administrative and generally targeted low-ranking officials, some of the high-profile punishments included the removal of Liu Tienan, the former deputy head of China's top planning agency, and Guo Youming, the vice governor of the central province of Hubei. Both men were removed after corruption allegations made headlines throughout the country.
