See bigger corruption picture

That four key officials of a single province were placed under investigation during the past week alone can be seen as a barometer for the momentum of the current anti-graft fight. Close connections with local businesspeople are reportedly characteristic of these ranking officials in North China's Shanxi, which is a wealthy coal-producing province.

A decision by the national leadership was announced on Monday about the replacement of Shanxi's provincial boss, accompanied by a negative evaluation of the province's political ecology.

That several well-known coal mine owners in the province were also investigated points to the network of interest delivery between the two. Local coal mine owners provided money that lubricated these officials' way up the echelon of officialdom and these officials rewarded businesspeople with the help and convenience they needed to make money.

In the acquisitions and merging of small coal mines that took place twice in the province over the past decade, coal mine owners who received support from these local leaders became the winners. The connection between these winners and the local leaders who supported them became increasingly closer, and they actually formed an interest group. That several lower level local leaders have also been investigated as members of the network shows how extensive the net was.

Yet, the number of corrupt officials caught is only part of the benchmark to gauge how successful the fight is. What matters even more is the way the campaign can seek to mend the fence, which will make it difficult to abuse power, not least because the apprehension of bad apples is only the means rather than the end of the fight.

The story in Shanxi is typical of the combination of power and capital, which characterizes almost all cases of abuse of power by local government leaders. Further investigations into this particular network and the dissection of the complicated connections among officials and businesspeople involved will likely provide a clear picture of how an interest group forged between power and capital operates.

Discovering the details of how these officials developed their relations with businesspeople and how the deals were made will bring to light the institutional loopholes, which made it possible for such a big network of corruption to take shape and develop. This will be of great importance in dealing with the root causes of power abuses.