China Leader Makes Appeal on Corruption

President Sounds Alarm Loudly on Party Anniversary

BEIJING, June 30 -- President Hu Jintao, reacting to a cascade of recent scandals, marked the Chinese Communist Party's 85th anniversary Friday with a stern warning that rampant corruption could erode the party's popular legitimacy and undermine its hold on power.

Hu's frank appeal, in a speech to party members broadcast live from his headquarters in Beijing, reflected what officials describe as urgent concern among the senior leadership over China's extensive corruption, which has soiled the party's image among many of the country's 1.3 billion people. It also came against a background of preparations for next year's 17th party congress, when Hu is expected to cement his leadership by gaining support among activists and by placing loyalists in key posts.

"Anti-corruption and building a clean government are an important strategic mission," said Hu, who is party leader as well as president. "We cannot slack off for one moment." He added, "If a ruling party cannot maintain flesh-and-blood ties with the mass people, if it loses the people's support, it will lose its vitality."

Since taking over the party four years ago, Hu frequently has expressed dismay over what he seems to think is sinking probity among its 70 million members. He presided over a just-completed 18-month campaign to rekindle their zeal, discipline and orthodoxy. Two months ago, he suggested to dutiful party members a list of do's and don'ts, known as "eight glories and eight shames." But in his remarks Friday, he seemed to suggest these campaigns had not borne all the fruit he had hoped for.

"We must clearly recognize that within the party there are still some problems that do not conform to the advanced characteristics of the party," Hu said. "For example, some party members' beliefs are not steady. In some places the phenomenon of corruption is relatively serious, especially with some cadres abusing their power for personal gains, taking bribes and bending the law, becoming corrupt and degenerate."

Chinese people have become increasingly cynical about the party's role as they see party and government officials getting rich by working hand-in-hand with private businessmen taking advantage of market reforms. In towns and villages across the country, farmers and small-scale merchants assume local officials are corrupt.

Several recent high-profile scandals seemed likely to reinforce the suppositions. In particular, authorities announced Thursday the firing of Vice Adm. Wang Shouye, a deputy navy commander, on accusations of economic crimes. It was an unusual instance of corruption visibly reaching into senior military ranks.

Also recently, a vice governor of Anhui province was detained on bribery charges, according to a Hong Kong newspaper that often serves as a conduit for the Chinese government, and rumors circulated that a vice governor of nearby Hunan had tried to commit suicide after he came under suspicion in a large-scale corruption investigation.

An official at the Hunan propaganda office declined to confirm the reports. According to the newspaper Ta Kung Pao, the detained vice governor of Anhui, He Minxu, was also blamed for a riot that took place in Chizhou a year ago. City residents burned a police station and looted a department store after complaining that their officials were more interested in attracting outside investors than in helping the local people.

Perhaps the most embarrassing recent corruption case was that of Liu Zhihua, a vice mayor of Beijing. Liu was fired earlier this month after he came under investigation for what was described as immoral conduct and corruption.

Liu, who was in charge of construction and development, had approval power on some projects for the 2008 Olympics, leading to suggestions that he had taken bribes in connection with a pre-Games building spree. Hu's government has been particularly eager to keep corruption out of the Olympics, which in Beijing are seen as a way to advertise to the world the swift economic progress China has made over the past quarter-century of reforms.