The week-long 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded on October 22, 2022, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT

The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) pointed out corruption is a cancer to the vitality and ability of the Party, thus it is important to prevent officials from acting as proxies of interest and power groups, Wang Jianxin, director of the Publicity Department of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC and the National Commission of Supervision, said at a press conference on Monday.

The fight against corruption is the most thorough self-reform of the Party, and the report pointed out that as long as the ground for corruption still exists, the fight against corruption can't be paused at any moment, Wang said. "We should focus more on the efforts to ensure officials do not dare, are not able, and have no desire to commit corruption," Wang noted.

We need to improve the mechanisms to curb the spread of corruption, and to continuously achieve more institutional results and greater governance effectiveness, according to Wang.

The report says that the Party has a pivotal role in building China into a modern socialist country in all respects and in advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts. The CPC is the world's largest Marxist ruling party, and we must always be united, advanced and pure, and becomes "a piece of hard steel," Wang said.

We must uphold and strengthen the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, Wang said. The leadership of the Party is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee is the highest principle of the Party's leadership, Wang noted. 

The report stresses that the leadership of the Party is comprehensive, systematic, and holistic and must be implemented in all fields, aspects, and processes of the cause of the Party and the country. 

Over the past decade, 761,000 cases of corruption and improper conduct in workplace have been investigated, and 683,000 people were punished, said Wang.

In the past decade, the anti-corruption efforts have made great progress and remarkable achievements, however, "we must be clear that the situation of the anti-corruption is still grim and complicated", Wang said. "The fight against corruption is a life and death struggle. We can only advance, never retreat, and only win, never lose."

Disciplinary and supervisory organs nationwide have filed 4.648 million cases and punished 4.573 million people, Wang said during the press conference.