A senior CPC official in Beijing on Thursday admitted corruption did exist in China, and said the advanced education campaign will improve the CPC members' quality and help reduce the incidence of corruption cases.

"It is true that with regard to our grassroots cadres, some of them probably are less competent and are not able to resolve problems that have triggered group petitions or protests," Li Jingtian, deputy head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"Some even abused their power for personal gains," Li said at a press conference on the CPC's nationwide education campaign to preserve the advanced nature of Party members.

The first group of 801,000 grassroots Party organizations and 13.855 million Party members finished the education in the first half this year, which "has achieved comparatively remarkable results, won endorsement of the Party members and the general public, and is appreciated by all social sectors," he said.

The campaign is aimed to improve the ideological quality of the 69 million Party members and resolve the outstanding problems of some grassroots Party organizations and Party members.

"Although the results can not be overestimated, I believe that after this advanced education campaign, corruption cases will be fewer," said Li, also deputy head of the Steering Group for the Education Campaign to Preserve the Advanced Nature of Communist Party Members.

According to the arrangement of the CPC Central Committee, Party organizations and members will join in the education in three groups each lasting half a year.

The first group involved Party and government organizations at and above the county level and some enterprises and public institutions. The second group will come from urban grassroots units at the township level, and the third from the rural areas.

During the education campaign, Party members are organized to review the Party Constitution and the important thought of "Three Represents," hold in-depth discussions about the specific requirements for preserving the advanced nature of Party members in the new era, extensively solicit opinions from the general public, so as to find out the major problems, and then carry out Party identity analysis, conduct criticism and self-criticism, and formulate rectification measures for the settlement of these problems.

Currently, the education campaign is being carried out among the second group of 1.8 million grassroots Party organizations and 30 million Party members, accounting for 52 percent and 43 percent of the total respectively, according to Li.

Li also disclosed that last year, the CPC expelled 49,000 unqualified members in the Party's regular work to give disciplinary punishment to unqualified Party members according to the Party Constitution.

"We will educate those unqualified Party members in an effort to make them qualified. If they fail to improve, the Party will deal with them strictly according to the Party Constitution," said Li.

The Party official also denied rumors by some foreign critics that thousands of CPC members have renounced membership in recent months, and rejected the accounts posted on foreign Web sites, depicting the claims as "false rumors spread by people with ulterior motives."

Li said an increasing number of young people and intellectuals are applying for joining the CPC after they witnessed that the CPC has led the whole nation scoring great achievements in the country's reform and socialist modernization drive.

Last year, 17.38 million Chinese applied to join the Party, 1.357 million or 8.5 percent more than the previous year; 2.418 million Chinese, including 894 private entrepreneurs, joined the Party, 183,000 or 8.2 percent more than the previous year.

The CPC now has more than 69 million members in 3.4 million grassroots units.

Source: Xinhua