From giving former presidential aides life prison terms to closing luxury clubs, Chinese President Xi Jinping continues his anti-corruption campaign to curb graft and wrong practices in government.
The Telegraph reported that a lot of luxury clubs in China were forced to close or downgrade as part of the president’s campaign. Local officials used to frequent these clubs which charge up to 200,000 yuan annual membership fee.
In the last two years, over 30 private clubs in Hangzhou, an eastern city, were forced by local authorities to amend their business practices or reduce their prices. In southern China, four clubs were shuttered in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, while a fifth club was closed in nearby Zhuhai.
The clubs are on the scrutiny list of Xi’s campaign because it has been used by Chinese officials as venue to conduct their corrupt practices since they could be discreet in the “members only” establishments. The clubs are where a lot of bribes have traded hands, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
In Beijing, 24 expensive clubs were forced to shutter or curb their prices in 2014, reported Xinhua News Agency. The aim of the measures it to reduce extravagance of officials such as Zhou Shaoqiang, the head of a local state-run company. Zhao, member of a club in Zhuhai which charges 200,000 yuan membership fee annually, drank – together with his friends – 12 bottles of imported wine at one visit and racked up 80,000 yuan bill.
On Tuesday, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said it has returned to China one-third of its top 100 list of most wanted corruption suspects who had fled overseas. Beijing issued the list in 2014, and since then 33 of those on the list had been apprehended and repatriated back to China for trial, reported Reuters.