CHINA: China determined to wipe out corruption after Olympic graft scandal.

The Chinese government will punish any official involved in corruption no matter how senior, a spokeswoman of the Beijing Municipal Government said on Wednesday (December 13, 2006). On Tuesday (December 12, 2006), China's Communist Party said it had expelled a former vice-mayor for taking bribes. Liu Zhihua, who had been in charge of Olympic venue and infrastructure construction, will face criminal proceedings after Party watchdog, the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, found he had abused his office, according to the Xinhua news agency. "About Liu Zhihua, I have to say it's his personal choice. This is very obvious. As we all know, he had no position with the Beijing Olympic Committee. So about the Olympic construction project that all the media friends were once very concerned about, he's clear from that. You asked if other officials of the Beijing Municipal Government are having the same problems as Liu, we haven't heard any explanations from the The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. This means no other officials were found with problems. So this can be denied completely. As for how the Beijing Government will react and deal with this, I think the Beijing Municipal Government as well as other provincial and city governments place a lot of interest on discipline inspection." Wang Hui, the spokeswoman of the Beijing Municipal Government said in a press conference. Liu, who was overseeing the $40 billion building project to get Beijing ready for the 2008 Games, was also accused of helping his mistress "seek profit", Xinhua said. He had been fired in June accused of corruption and bad morals. China has launched a huge corruption drive over the last few years with nearly 50,000 officials prosecuted and punished up to the end of 2005.

ITN Source | December 13, 2006

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