China's top law enforcement official has called for a six-month strike hard campaign on official and corporate corruption and vowed substantial results within two years, state press said Saturday.
State Councillor Luo Gan, head of the Communist Party's politics and law commission, made the call in a tele-conference on Friday when he also urged judicial and law enforcement officers to step up efforts to crackdown on terrorism, the leading People's Daily said.
"We must steadfastly turn over every rock to search out those protecting the evil forces behind the scenes, no matter who they are and no matter what position they hold," Luo was quoted as saying.
He called on law enforcement agencies to "destroy the political and economic bases" of those who harbor criminal activity, saying the ongoing "strike hard" campaign -- which has largely been targeted at violent crime -- be closely linked with a fight against government corruption.
Investigations would be set up in state monopolies and high profit industries in an effort to "stop up loopholes," he said.
"We must strengthen administration and severely expose 'commercial forces that nurture evil' and 'evil forces that protect business'," he said.
Luo said the main goal was to "see clear progress in society's public safety within two years".
Rampant corruption in China has long been tied to government, police and military officials who often engage in lucrative economic activities and businesses and who develop underworld protection rackets to safeguard their interests.
Luo also urged law enforcement officials to "earnestly study the changes in international and domestic terrorism" in an effort to detect early and subsequently prevent terrorist attacks.
The "strike hard" campaign has been widely criticized abroad for its lack of due legal process and the no-nonsense means in which criminal suspects have been arrested and prosecuted.
Western diplomats in Beijing have said China has executed at least 1,800 criminals since President Jiang Zemin launched the crackdown in April, while tens of thousands of criminal suspects have been rounded up.
The total number of executions during the period is more than the number of executions in the rest of the world over the last three years combined, according to the Amnesty International human rights group -- BEIJING (AFP)
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