BEIJING, June 15 (Xinhua) -- A local official's pursuit of short-term economic growth at the expense of environmental protection has come under scrutiny in China, as authorities intensify efforts to curb misguided governance practices and promote practical, people-centered development.
While serving as Party chief of Jinxi County in east China's Jiangxi Province, Wang Chengbing, former vice head of the human resources and social security department of Jiangxi, allegedly ignored ecological protection requirements and blindly introduced heavily-polluting chemical enterprises into a local industrial park in pursuit of rapid economic gains, according to a statement released Monday by the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).
Wang placed economic indicators above environmental red lines and pressured environmental authorities to adopt lenient penalties rather than strict supervision when companies exceeded pollution limits, the statement by the anti-graft agency said.
Despite repeated public complaints over pollution problems, Wang failed to properly address the issue, allowing several chemical firms to continue illegal production activities for an extended time, it added.
Wang was among five officials publicly named and shamed by the CCDI in a new batch of cases involving distorted views of governance performance, including reckless urban redevelopment, vanity projects, blind investment promotion, and illegal financing activities.
One of the other cases involved Ren Huashan, former vice mayor of Handan City in north China's Hebei Province. Ren was accused of launching multiple urban village relocation projects despite severe funding shortages and promoting the construction of a tourist attraction site that violated land-use and planning regulations.
The disclosure comes as the CPC Central Committee launched a Party-wide study campaign in late February to promote what it calls "a correct understanding of what it means to perform well."
The concept serves as a guiding principle for officials, emphasizing that their performance should be judged by improvements in people's well-being and long-term, tangible results achieved through sound decision-making and concrete action, even if those results are not immediately visible.
Scheduled to run through July, the campaign seeks to address misguided approaches to governance that can lead to vanity projects, hidden risks, excessive burdens on local communities, and public discontent.
The campaign is the latest effort to strengthen the Party's self-governance, following a campaign last year focused on improving officials' conduct.
The CCDI said the disclosed cases reflected typical manifestations of misguided views of governance performance, including arbitrary use of power regardless of local realities and excessive pursuit of superficial accomplishments, disregarding fiscal sustainability.
Such practices waste public resources, undermine sustainable development and damage the interests of the people, the anti-graft agency said, pledging stricter oversight, effective rectification and severe punishment. ■
