By Adam Rose
BEIJING | Mon Nov 4, 2013 8:57am GMT
(Reuters) - China has sent investigators to six more
provinces and four government departments, including Xinhua news agency and the
Commerce Ministry, the ruling Communist Party's corruption watchdog said on
Monday, in the latest move to tackle graft.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has
also dispatched inspectors to the southern economic powerhouse of Guangdong, coal-rich
Shanxi province, the southwestern province of Yunnan, the Ministry of Land and
Resources and the state-owned Three Gorges Corporation power company, the
watchdog said in a statement on its website.
The first round began in May and the government issued
preliminary findings in late September, though few details have seeped out to
date.
"My speculation is that this round will be harsher than
the first round," said Yuhua Wang, a corruption expert and associate
professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Wang Qishan has gained more support from other senior
leaders, and this time it will be serious," he added, referring to the
party's anti-corruption chief.
Each inspection team has given out a contact number and set
up a post office box so the public can tip them off.
Since taking office in March, President Xi Jinping has
called corruption a threat to the party's survival and vowed to go after
powerful "tigers" as well as lowly "flies".
Authorities have already announced the investigation or arrest
of a handful of senior officials. Among them, former executives from oil giant
PetroChina are being investigated in what appears to be the biggest graft probe
into a state-run firm in years.
The May probes targeted five regions and five departments, including
the poor southern province of Guizhou, the southeastern province of Jiangxi and
coal-rich Inner Mongolia, as well as the state-owned China Grain Reserves
Corporation and the China Publishing Group Corp.
The party has so far given few details of the outcome of the
first round of investigations, in line with its secretive nature, though the
anti-corruption watchdog publishes website reports of a steady stream of minor
officials being probed.
Corruption is expected to be discussed at a key conclave being
convened by the party in Beijing from November 9-12, known as the Third Plenum,
though economic reform issues are likely to dominate.
Xinhua reported over the weekend that the meeting might
include a new unspecified "anti-corruption mechanism", but the report
provided no details.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)
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