Wrongly accused officials' names cleared in Zhejiang

Seven officials from Zhejiang province have had their names cleared after investigations found that they had been wrongly accused, provincial anticorruption authorities announced.

The officials, who were falsely accused or framed, are all supervised by the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Zhejiang Provincial Committee, which oversees the selection and appointment of personnel at the provincial level, according to the CPC Zhejiang Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Zhejiang Provincial Commission of Supervision, the provincial antigraft watchdogs.

The announcement came after a monthlong campaign starting in mid-April by the disciplinary authorities in Zhejiang to help victims, including individuals and organizations, clear their names and eliminate the negative effects of their accusations.

"I deeply feel the care and warmth of the Party," said one of the seven officials who had their false accusations lifted. "Being cleared of wrongful accusations will make me work harder."

In the past, such cases were usually cleared through written notices, said an official with provincial antigraft watchdogs.

"But this time we adopted a face-to-face manner as well, so as to encourage those wrongly accused to shake off their burdens and work without worries," said the unnamed official.

At a study session in January 2016 attended by provincial — and ministerial-level officials, President Xi Jinping first raised the idea of making distinctions between three pairs of errors when fighting corruption and motivating officials to assume responsibility at the same time.

He said that distinctions should be made between errors caused due to a lack of experience in pushing pilot reform programs and deliberate violations of law and Party discipline, between errors caused by exploring new areas not specifically banned by higher authorities and violations of law and Party discipline with full knowledge of the prohibitions, and between unintentional errors caused by pursuing development and violations of law and Party discipline for personal gain.

In 2016, Zhejiang became one of the earliest places to formulate and issue guidelines in accordance with Xi's idea to be more tolerant toward officials making unintended mistakes and embolden them to step up and take on more responsibility.

At the end of last year, China's top anticorruption watchdogs, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision, posted a video calling for more efforts to probe those who falsely accuse or frame others.

Statistics from Zhejiang's discipline and supervision organs show that 1,562 officials and 72 Party organizations at all levels in the province have seen false accusations against them removed since last year, and some 106 people who lodged false accusations in 79 cases have been found and punished during the same period.