The agency’s former boss was executed three years ago on corruption charges and sale of medical drugs dangerous to human health. Beijing confirms that in 12 provinces local officials are guilty of embezzlement worth 75 billion yuan.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Zhang Jingli, deputy chief of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), has been removed from his post by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for “serious disciplinary violations”, a charge usually reserved for officials who take bribes or engage in abuses of power. Three years ago, SFDA director Zheng Xiaoyu was executed after he was convicted on bribery and approving the sale of counterfeit medical drugs.

Zhang, 55, joined the SFDA when Zhen was in charge. In April, five other SFDA officials were arrested for taking bribes from large drug companies in exchange for authorising the sale of counterfeit drugs. In some cases, drugs without any medicinal value were sold; in other, fake drugs actually caused poisoning.

According to Prof Li Chengyan, director of the Institute for the Research against Corruption in Beijing, “it was inevitable that more corrupt officials would be found. I can say today that many more will be uncovered because the pharmaceutical market is one of the most lucrative and the agency that regulates it has a lot of power.”

Ultimately, corruption is endemic in the country. According to the National Audit Office, local governments in 12 provinces and 26 cities are owed more than 75 billion yuan (US$ 11 billion) in income from land leases but have not been included in their budgets, the National Audit Office says.

Beijing is aware of the problem and very concerned about its effects. President Hu Jintao and Hu Jintao have warned Communist officials that corruption undermines the very survival of the Communist Party.

Until two years, the party did discuss ways to introduce democracy in internal elections in order to prevent the rise of corrupt members, but it came to naught. The latest batch of promotions involved mostly offspring of the ruling party nomenklatura.

For the time being then, all efforts to root out corruption appear to be mission impossible, as the figures from the Supreme People’s Court indicate. In 2006, out of 33,000 cases, only 1,600 officials were actually arrested and about 80 per cent were able to avoid conviction.

Case in point: although party officials are not allowed to invest in coalmines (according to a new party directive), some 95 per cent of those with interests in mines affected my accidents in 2006 was acquitted. In 2005, about 110,000 party officials were punished but only with disciplinary action.

• china
• corruption
• counterfeit
• medical
• drugs
• communist
• party