Recently, Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, was investigated for the suspected serious violation of the Party’s code of conduct, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.
The latest move indicated that China has stepped up efforts to curb corruption in the financial sector, which has become one of the focuses of the anti-corruption campaign.
The investigation into Xiang came shortly after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made a speech on March 21 at a State Council meeting on clean governance, in which he vowed to harshly crack down on financial corruption, and stressed that the financial sector is also vulnerable to risks, such as illegal Internet financing, bad assets, bond defaults as well as shadow banking.
Li declared a tough graft crackdown with five components.
First, a deep reform on streamlining government and delegating authority, strengthening the innovation on regulatory policy and reducing government intervention in the market.
Second, all authorities in principle should make their budgets public and allocate fiscal funds according to schedule.
The third is that the country will crack down on bank violations in extending credit, insider trading in security markets and fraud by insurance companies, as well as on the punishment of internal supervisors and company managers who collude with big players in the market. State-owned enterprises must also take more punitive actions to strengthen their supervision and due diligence.
Using publicly accessible resources trading platforms, the openness and transparency of the bidding system and government procurement system will help to control the graft.
Finally, the embezzlement of funds earmarked for poverty alleviation, basic living allowances, medical insurance and other such issues will be strictly punished.
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