Combating corruption/ China

Every Chinese republican regime and imperial dynasty has inveighed against corruption.

The impact has invariably been limited, with campaigns against graft scraping only the surface and being abandoned after a short period when a few big fish have been held up to public scrutiny and the immediate political aim has been achieved.

This time, it is different.

The anti-corruption campaign launched by China's leader, Xi Jinping, after he took office at the end of 2012, will go on forever, says its chief implementation officer, Wang Qishan, head of the Communist Party's Discipline Commission.

China's corruption probe bares its teeth