Premier calls for anti-corruption drive

CHINESE PREMIER Wen Jiabao renewed his oft-repeated call for tougher anti-corruption efforts yesterday, his comments taking on new resonance against the backdrop of the political scandal over former Chongqing Party boss Bo Xilai and the mysterious death of the British businessman Neil Heywood.

“We need to deeply acknowledge that the greatest threat to the ruling party is corruption,” Mr Wen wrote in an essay published in the party’s main journal of theory, Qiushi. He said corruption thrives because of “excessive concentration of power and the lack of effective oversight”.

The Communist Party is trying to shore up support for its decision to purge Bo Xilai and launch an investigation into what are described as serious breaches of discipline. Mr Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, is under investigation regarding Mr Heywood’s death.

Mr Wen, who is into his final year as premier before a leadership transition that begins later this year, warned that “the nature of the regime may change” and possibly come to an end if the issue of graft is not dealt with properly.

Mr Bo has not been formally accused of corruption, but many sources in the business community believe he was able to leverage his position as city boss in Chongqing, as the chief in the port city of Dalian and also his influence as commerce minister, to lucrative ends during his career.

The extravagant lifestyle of his son Bo Guagua, and the fact he attends some of the most expensive colleges in the world and has perks such as Porsches and Ferraris, are sure to figure among the evidence the prosecution is gathering against Bo snr and the family.

Mr Bo was in line for a seat on the standing committee of the politburo, but he was purged after his former chief of police, Wang Lijun, ran to the US consulate in Chongqing in early February, where he is believed to have informed the US of his suspicions that the Bo family was linked to the death in November of Mr Heywood.

The Xinhua news agency also ran an editorial calling on readers to back the moves against Mr Bo and his wife and to ignore speculation that the move against him was related to factional manoeuvring within the politburo.

“The handling of the Wang Lijun incident, the death of Neil Heywood and Bo Xilai’s case of serious disciplinary violations is a major issue related to party principles and the law. It has nothing to do with a so-called ‘political struggle’. Any modern state will certainly deal with such problems according to law,” it said.

The government is also trying to keep a lid on internet rumours as it tries to manage the way in which the Bo Xilai affair is handled.

The web was blocked for a few days last week as the scandal broke, and both the People’s Daily newspaper and the Xinhua news agency carried commentaries urging people to avoid rumour.

The Twitter-like microblog site Weibos is full of speculation. Authorities detained six people for spreading rumours last month about a supposed coup in Beijing, and for saying it was backed by Mr Bo’s supporters in the central government.

Despite this, speculation and rumours abound about the incident. A problem is that no one has come out with named quotes containing real information about the case, as people are afraid.

Reuters ran a story saying Mr Heywood was poisoned after he tried to blackmail Ms Gu into giving him more money for a financial transaction.

The news agency quoted two unnamed sources close to the police investigation as saying Mr Heywood (41), had been killed after threatening to expose Ms Gu’s plans to move money abroad.