Celebrities speak out for anti-corruption

BEIJING - China's anti-corruption campaign has won the support and backing of celebrities who are joining the fight to terminate the extravagant behavior of officials.

Nobel laureate Mo Yan, in an interview for the website of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said he was going to write about corruption.

He said: "Power, money and other temptations are tests to everyone."

A book on this subject, Mo said, could have a "penetrating and profound" effect, as it would inspect people under a moralistic and legal microscope, adding that he would not avoid covering China's problems.

Mo said he had yet to put pen to paper but that he hoped to produce a deep and satisfactory piece.

Having worked in the military and at the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Procuratorial Daily, the 59-year-old writer has criticized corruption and bureaucracy in his novels "Garlic Ballads" and "Republic of Wine".

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012 for work that "merges hallucinatory realism with folk tales, history and the contemporary," according to the Swedish academy.

The CCDI has interviewed several well-known writers over the last few months, including Eryue He, a Chinese historical fiction writer, Chen Zhongshi and Feng Jicai, and published them on its website.

Meanwhile, the disciplinary watchdog's fifth plenary session opened on Monday, which will further outline the Party's efforts to root out corruption.

Since the transition of leadership in late 2012, great efforts have been taken to address rampant corruption, which the CPC believes may threaten the very survival of the Party and state.

In an interview with a major newspaper run by the CCDI, veteran actor Pu Cunxin, who is also a national political advisor, compared the country's counter-corruption efforts to the fight against HIV/AIDS, saying "it is far from over".

As an ambassador and avid campaigner for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, Pu said the only vaccine for corruption was a suitable system.

Pu has supported efforts to limit the number of evening galas, especially those financed with public funds.

TV host Bai Yansong of China Central Television told the newspaper that after the "Mass Line" campaign and the "eight-point regulation", which aimed to correct undesirable work styles, were initiated, frugal attitudes in life and work were becoming the new normal.

"Now I will order crab when eating out, as now one that weighs less than 250 grams only costs 38 yuan [about 6.2 US dollars]," Bai said, adding that previously the price of the crustacean was exorbitant.

The counter-corruption drive and the rectifying of official work styles mean that ordinary people's lives are less costly, he said.