扶貧腐敗 (fúpín fǔbài): Corruption in poverty relief

On the third China Poverty Relief Day on Monday, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China said that its agencies nationwide have dealt with 5,292 corruption cases in the field of poverty relief in the first half of this year.

Grassroots corruption cases in the provinces and autonomous regions and Chongqing municipality of western China accounted for the majority of these corruption cases, and officials at the village level have become the major violators of Party discipline and the nation's laws.

Many corruption cases discovered are concerned with the renovation of dilapidated housing and the distribution of the basic living allowances among residents.

The amount of money involved in the corruption cases varied hugely. The largest amount was 29.7 million yuan ($4.45 million), while the smallest amount of money involved in a corruption case was only 500 yuan.

Anti-corruption work in the field of poverty relief has been listed as a key task for the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection this year, because it not only relates to the livelihoods and vital interests of the poorest residents in the country, it also has great impact on the success or failure of the nation's poverty relief goal of lifting 50 million people out of poverty by 2020.

The goal has been set by the central authorities in line with United Nations development agenda in the coming decade.