Ling case shows that pledge on discipline 'is not an empty slogan'

The top leadership's announcement of the decision to prosecute Ling Jihua, a former State-level official, on corruption charges has attracted widespread attention in the Chinese media, traditional as well as online.

A commentary in the official People's Daily said on Tuesday that the decision regarding Ling showed that "the leadership's pledge about running the Party with strict discipline is not an empty slogan".

Conducting a thorough investigation of Ling's case is a significant step toward "eliminating hidden problems inside the Party, maintaining strict Party discipline and purifying Party organizations", it added.

Monday's announcement followed a decision to convene the Communist Party of China Central Committee's plenary session in October.

It is normal practice, political commentators said, that before embarking on new tasks, the leadership completes some of the matters it had been working on earlier.

Sources in Beijing said the forthcoming Central Committee plenum will make a number of key decisions, including one on China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for economic and social development.

The investigation of Ling has been underway since December. He was vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference after serving from 2007 to 2012 as head of the CPC Central Committee's General Office - effectively chief of staff to the nation's president.

After considering a report by anti-corruption officers, the top leadership decided to expel Ling from the Party and transfer his case to prosecutors. A separate statement issued on Monday by the Supreme People's Procuratorate said an inquiry had been launched into bribery allegations against Ling, and it had been decided that he should be arrested in accordance with the law. A date has not been set for his trial.

According to the top leadership's statement, Ling had been found to have "seriously violated political discipline and the rules of the CPC, as well as the Party's organizational and confidentiality discipline".

The statement also said he violated the Party's regulations on integrity and self-discipline, accepted money and gifts personally and through his wife, and sought benefits for his wife's businesses.

Ling is alleged to have held a large amount of documentation about the Party's and State's "core secrets", in violation of the law and the internal disciplinary regulations of the civil service.

The statement said that he committed adultery with more than one person and traded power for sex.

Additionally, it said, the investigation uncovered information about his possible involvement in other criminal offenses.

Li Chengyan, a professor at Peking University's School of Government, said the top leadership's decision regarding Ling "is not a surprise because many of his close associates, especially ones from Shanxi province, have already been rounded up by the anti-graft authorities".

The Global Times ran an editorial about the prosecution of Ling, blaming his downfall on a "hunger for power and personal gain" that destroyed his ability to reason.

(China Daily 07/22/2015 page1)