China to inspect major state-owned enterprises in anti-graft drive

BEIJING (REUTERS) - Chinese anti-graft authorities will inspect all major state-owned enterprises this year, state media reported on Wednesday, as the country widens a sprawling campaign against corruption.

The anti-corruption campaign has felled a swathe of officials at state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, the parent of PetroChina. Zhou Yongkang, China's disgraced domestic security tsar who has become the most high-profile target of the drive, once ran the oil giant.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said it would toughen a campaign to seek international cooperation in tracking down economic fugitives and their ill-gotten assets overseas, state media reported.

It said senior officials must "toe the line" and that the party "will not tolerate cronyism nor allow fakery and sycophancy", Xinhua news agency reported.

CCDI will also set up offices in eight departments of the central government and the elite Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party, Xinhua said.

China on Tuesday sacked a senior lawmaker who was under investigation for taking bribes in "huge amounts", among other charges.

In a speech on Tuesday at a meeting of anti-graft authorities, President Xi Jinping said China must toughen oversight of government departments that accumulate power, or are capital-intensive or resource rich.

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