A total of 674 prepaid consumption cards were found in the house of Feng Xinzhu, former vice-governor of Shaanxi province－not something he could afford at his salary. The anti-corruption team investigating the case said he had taken bribes worth 70 million yuan ($10.1 million), even formed a WeChat group called "Happy Team" with two people who bribed him.

In May 2019, Feng was sentenced to 15 years in jail for corruption, and he is one of many corrupt officials featured in a recent CCTV documentary.

Wang Xiaoguang, former vice-governor of Guizhou province, "borrowed" money from an enterprise to establish a listed company. Anti-corruption officials found 4,000 bottles of expensive Moutai liquor from his house, even as he tried to empty them into the drain to destroy evidence.

And Lai Xiaomin, former head of China Huarong, a financial agency, had hoarded 200 million yuan in banknotes at home.

Yet some corrupt officials have been daring enough to take bribes despite the anti-corruption agencies intensifying their vigil. For them, the lure of the lucre is greater than the fear of imprisonment.

Those officials who take bribes from businesspeople have to favor the bribe-givers, which is an infringement on the rights and interests of law-abiding citizens, especially taxpayers.

Behind the 200 million yuan found at Lai's home could be an illegal investment scheme worth billions of yuan. Feng had redirected more than 10 million yuan each from the poverty-alleviation fund to the companies that gave him bribes. Which means many impoverished residents couldn't get the due benefits of the poverty-alleviation work.

These cases help us better understand the guiding spirit of the fourth plenum of the 19th Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which concluded on Wednesday.

Feng, Lai and Wang might never get to watch the CCTV documentary featuring them, but there are many other officials who can, and they would do well to not indulge in corruption. The fight against corruption will not stop. And it should not.

?- Zhang Zhouxiang,?China Daily