Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    GUAN YU is a household name in China. He was a general who served under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). He helped Liu Bei found and become the first ruler of the state of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period.

    Legend has it that Guan Yu was once injured in the left arm by a stray arrow, which pierced through his arm. A physician told him that the arrowhead had poison on it and the poison had seeped into the bone. The only way to cure him was to cut open his arm and scrape away the poison in the bone. Guan Yu accepted the challenge and hung tough until the end of the operation.

    The saying “scraping the bone to remove poison” has been used to describe a person’s strong will and indomitable spirit to do away with someone or something that threatens the life or safety of an individual or an organization.

    It is an apt description of what’s going on in China. The downfall of another senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official has once again manifested China’s unwavering commitment to eradicating the corruption that has seeped into the bones of the CPC and the nation.

    The latest disgraced official is Ling Jihua, former vice chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), as well as former chief of the United Front Work Department of the CPC’s Central Committee.

    A statement by the Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said that Ling was being investigated for “suspected serious discipline violations,” the usual euphemism for graft.

    Ling first became the talk of the town after his son Ling Gu died in a Ferrari crash in Beijing in March 2012. Also in the car were two young women who were seriously injured, one being naked and the other only partially clothed. Chinese corrupt officials invariably have classic characteristics such as a huge sum of stolen money, one or more mistresses, family members with foreign citizenships and offspring who live in lavish or flamboyant ways.

    Like many other greedy officials, Ling has family members involved in corruption scandals. His older brother, Ling Zhengce, a former vice chairman of the CPPCC branch in North China’s Shanxi Province, was probed in June for suspected “serious discipline and law violations.” His other brother, Ling Wancheng, a businessman, is also being probed for suspected commercial crimes.

    By any standard, China’s official corruption is alarming in its pervasiveness and severity. Corrupt “tigers” like Zhou Yongkang, former member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee, and Xu Caihou, former military leader, were believed to have amassed billions of yuan in illegal wealth. It’s said that investigators were taken aback by what they found in one of Xu’s luxurious residences in Beijing: cash weighing a ton and countless gold, silver and jewelry.

    If these corrupt officials’ insatiable avarice is predictable, it was surprising that “flies” could be as troublesome as “tigers.” Not long ago, investigators found 120 million yuan (US$19.61 million) in cash, 37 kilograms of gold, and certificates for 68 units of real estate in Ma Chaoqun’s home. Ma was the former general manager of a water supply company of Beidaihe in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, and is under investigation on the charge of graft. The public wonders how many “giant flies” are still lurking, and they are expecting tougher and more thorough moves to get rid of the “poison.”

    It’s not an exaggeration to say that failure to eradicate corruption will lead to the demise of the CPC and China. Zhou Yongkang, as one of the CPC’s top leaders, and Xu Caihou, as a top PLA general, had been using their powers to construct their “kingdoms” for at least a decade and had caused devastating damages to the Party and the State. For a good 10 years, Xu promoted numerous senior officers by accepting bribes!

    Ling’s deposition demonstrates China’s resolve to carry the anti-corruption campaign through to the end, with nobody or no area untouchable, until the day when an institutional “case” is made to make no officials “want, venture, or be able” to corrupt.

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)