China Focus: China's anti-corruption campaign remains in focus in 2025

　　BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Throughout 2025, China's anti-corruption campaign has continued with undiminished intensity, targeting officials at all levels and advancing efforts to repatriate fugitives and recover misappropriated funds.

　　Official data showed that in the first three quarters of this year, disciplinary authorities nationwide filed 789,000 cases and imposed penalties on 677,000 individuals.

　　"The current situation in the fight against corruption remains grave and complex, and the task of eliminating the conditions and breeding ground for corruption is still arduous," said Song Wei, an expert from a research institute on clean government in Beijing.

　　Song noted that authorities must maintain their strategic resolve and press ahead without pause or retreat.

　　Since the beginning of the year, China's Sky Net campaign, an operation aimed at apprehending fugitives, recovering misappropriated assets and combating cross-border corruption, has steamed ahead with unabated intensity.

　　In July, Zhou Jinghua, one of China's "100 most-wanted" corruption suspects sought through an Interpol Red Notice at China's request, was extradited from Thailand, becoming the 63rd fugitive apprehended under the campaign.

　　In 2025, the National Commission of Supervision initiated a special operation, the first of its kind, to recover overseas proceeds from duty-related crimes, promising to pursue all illicit assets and deny corrupt officials and their relatives any opportunity to enjoy their ill-gotten gains abroad.

　　"In recent years, efforts to track down fugitives and recover stolen assets have gradually moved from relying primarily on persuasion to a broader range of measures, including capture, repatriation, and extradition," said Zhang Lei, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University.

　　Zhang stressed the importance of pursuing both the recovery of fugitives and implementing measures to prevent them from fleeing to other countries, as well as tightening controls on officials who are at risk of escaping.

　　In 2025, the discipline authorities have also stepped up efforts to improve work practices and enforce discipline, tackling pointless formalities, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance, while implementing the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving conduct.

　　Official data showed that in the first 11 months of 2025, a total of 251,516 cases involving violations of eight-point rules on improving conduct were investigated nationwide, with 225,347 officials receiving disciplinary or administrative punishment.

　　By category, the largest share, more than 40 percent, involved officials failing to fulfill their duties, including negligence, inaction, mismanagement, and false reporting, in areas affecting economic development, social progress, and environmental protection.

　　"Efforts to improve conduct have produced visible changes and tangible results," said Ni Mingsheng, a professor at the Party School of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

　　He noted that as the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) approaches its end and preparations begin for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), it is all the more important to maintain momentum in improving work conduct and to deepen the integrated investigation of misconduct and corruption.

　　In 2025, the fifth and sixth rounds of inspections under the 20th CPC Central Committee were carried out in succession, completing full coverage of all provincial-level regions.

　　The full coverage of all provincial-level regions by the 20th CPC Central Committee's inspections marked an important step in institutionalizing and normalizing inspection-based oversight, said Zhang Zhen, dean of the school of discipline inspection and supervision at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law. ■