Chinese Officials in China Taken on Prison Tours in Anti-Corruption Effort

As the Chinese government wages a campaign against corruption, bureaucrats and other officials have been forced to go on prison tours as a warning of the potential consequences for corrupt actions. 

AFP reports that 70 officials and members of their families in the province of Hubei spent a day in jail as a warning. The government employees met 15 former government officials who had been imprisoned on corruption charges.

Chinese state media says that such visits are occurring throughout the country, but the Hubei trip seems to be the first to have been reported in the media.

News of the prison visits comes as President Xi Jinping is in the midst of a campaign to reduce political corruption, a major grievance for the Chinese people. His probes have seen senior Communist Party members in positions long thought unassailable thrown in jail.

Among those arrested in the campaign are Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai. Yongkang was formerly a member of the Politburo, the highest echelon of the Chinese government. He was previously the head of China's internal security forces and was said to have close ties to members of the military. He was arrested on charges of helping to enrich his family members by ensuring they received lucrative contracts in the oil and natural gas industries.

Bo Xilai was a young up and comer who rose to be party chief of Chongqing, one of China's most important cities. Before his arrest on murder and corruption charges, many thought he would one day ascend to the Politburo himself.

While many Chinese identify corruption as one of the major problems facing their country, they complain there have not been any meaningful legal reforms to ensure that corruption is stamped out for good. They complain that the arrest of figures such as Yongkang and Xilai are meant more to remove threats to President Jinping's power than actually fight corruption.