China hunts 'tigers' and swats 'flies'

Chinese officials, under pressure from the media and internal discipline inspectors, are being held accountable and sacked for more diverse reasons. Scrutiny was tightened with an eight point anti-bureaucracy mandate to fight extravagance and improve work styles. After the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress in late 2012, the "tigers and flies" anti-graft campaign began to smoke out corrupt officials both high and low. The latest case involved the vice governor of southwest China's Yunnan Province Shen Peiping, sacked on March 12 for severe breaches of the law and Party discipline. Shen and other sacked official are taken as "tigers" in the parlance of the CPC campaign. Many other lower ranking officials are dropping like "flies". Apart from bribery, the most common prelude to official downfall, personal use of government vehicles has swatted several "flies". According to Guangzhou newspaper Nanfang Daily, Lei Zhaoxin, a county official from manufacturing hotbed Shenzhen, was removed from his post on March 11 for attending a dinner party in a government vehicle. An official surnamed Hu from Huangshan city in east China's Anhui, was sacked on March 12 for negligence in supervising his driver who parked a government vehicle in front of the access path to a local hospital. In the five years before 2013, most fallen officials stepped aside following major incidents such as mining disasters, food safety scandals and serious road accidents. Nowadays, "improper life style" is more often cited when news of an official sacking news is released. Yi Junqing, former director of the CPC Central Committee's compilation and translation bureau, was removed from his post in January 2013, being a case in point, according to Sichuan journal, Lianzhengliaowang. It is believed that his downfall was related to an online essay by his alleged mistress, Chang Yan. The woman detailed their alleged affair in a100,000-character article, making Yi the highest-ranking official sacked for nothing more than a sex scandal. Early this year, Gu Yong, a local official in east China's Jiangsu Province, was dismissed over an intimate photograph with an unidentified woman in a karaoke bar. Gu himself insisted the picture was taken several years before. Officials also have to watch their words, bearing in mind the lesson of Deng Lianjun, an environmental protection bureau chief from Hebei Province. Deng was sacked last April for making "improper remarks" about a polluted river which he said was like "red bean soup."