Screenshots from anti-graft videos produced and launched by various regions across China. Photo: ccdi.gov.cn

Local discipline inspection commissions across the country including Central China's Hunan Province and Southwest China's Guizhou Province all launched education videos before and after holding plenary meetings, sending a strong signal that the fight against corruption is ongoing, according to the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission on Friday.

Since 2018, every year at the plenary meeting of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of Hunan, a special education film titled Loyalty and Betrayal is shown to all participants, and each participant has a copy of a book about how corrupt former officials confessed their illegal activities to keep them fully alert to the issue.

The films are not only a faithful record of the deepening of full and rigorous Party self-governance, but also a vivid footnote to the high-quality development of discipline inspection and supervision work, said Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity-Building at Peking University.

The film Loyalty and Betrayal tells of Zhao Yingyun, a former local official in the Hunan Rural Credit Union who took bribes including cash, cigarettes, alcohol and gift cards. Zhao appeared on camera and confessed that he was tempted by the gifts during his three years at the rural credit union.

In another film released by South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Li Xinyuan, former Party secretary of Guigang, confessed that he was greedy for power and money.

From 2003 to 2021, Li took advantage of his positions to provide benefits for individuals and departments and accepted more than 170 million yuan ($25 million) in return, according to the courts. He was given a suspended death sentence by a local court in Guangxi.

These educational films warn us that the current situation in the fight against corruption remains grim and complex, Zhuang said, according to the report posted on the website of the CCDI and the National Supervisory Commission on Friday.

In South China's Hainan Province, one film showed that the Lingao county government demolished three illegal high-rise buildings in accordance with the law under the supervision of the Hainan provincial commission for discipline inspection and supervision in October 2020.

For some time now, a number of top leaders in Lingao county have acted improperly and arbitrarily used their power, leading to the illegal construction of real estate projects, which encroached on the coastal zone and damaged scenic spots. The Hainan local commission for discipline inspection and supervision eventually cracked down on the illegal activities.

Zhuang noted the need to overcome laxness and fatigue and to continue to strictly and resolutely fight against corruption.

"Corruption is a cancer on the vitality and ability of the Party, and fighting corruption is the most thorough kind of self-reform there is," said the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Global Times