BEIJING: A documentary on anti-corruption that aired on Sunday has ignited heated discussions on Chinese social media, with its first spotlight episodeing grassroots corruption cases affecting people’s livelihoods. The documentary was jointly produced by the Publicity Department of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the National Commission of Supervision and China Media Group.
According to the documentary, since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2022, 768,000 cases of misconduct and corruption “affecting people’s immediate interests” have been investigated. These investigations resulted in disciplinary actions against 628,000 individuals and the transfer of 20,000 to prosecutorial authorities. The first episode revealed corruption cases involving grassroots officials that directly impacted people’s livelihoods, including housing, food and transportation.
One highlighted case involved Zhou Xiaojian, a grassroots housing security official in Dongan county in Yongzhou, Hunan province. Zhou, who managed local housing maintenance funds, was sentenced to 11.5 years in prison for embezzling and misappropriating over 11 million yuan ($1.5 million) of these funds.
According to the documentary, Zhou incurred massive debts from speculative lending in 2015, prompting him to embezzle and misappropriate housing maintenance funds. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
