Chinese Communist Party issues new ethics code as fight against corruption continues

Chinese Communist Party issues new ethics code

BEIJING — The Chinese Communist Party issued a new code of ethics Tuesday as the country’s fight against widespread corruption intensifies, the party’s Central Committee announced.

The warning to party officials against abusing their power comes just days before the start of the annual National People’s Congress, which brings about 3,000 delegates from across the country to Beijing. The majority are party members.

The ethics code warns party members of 52 “unacceptable practices,” including taking cash as a gift, using their power to benefit family members, being involved in for-profit activities and using public money for personal interests, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

“The code is significant for … building a clean government,” Xinhua cited the ethics code as saying. It said the code replaces one introduced on a trial basis in 1997, but it didn’t say what changes were made.

The party’s fight against corruption has “intentified in the new era,” Xinhua cited a Central Committee statement as saying.

In another move against corruption, state media last month said China wants to close the Beijing lobbying offices of up to 10,000 local governments over the next six months.

The new ethics code says party officials who violate the guidelines will be “severely” punished and could face criminal charges, Xinhua reported.

In some cases, China has used the death penalty to punish corruption.

Last month, the former vice president of the Chinese Supreme Court was sentenced to life in prison for embezzlement and receiving more than half a million dollars in bribes. He was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in August.

The most senior party member to be punished for corruption was Shanghai’s former powerful Communist Party chief, Chen Liangyu, who was sentenced in 2008 to 18 years in prison for his role in a pension fund scandal.