China's Ruling Party Vows to Root Out Corruption

China's National People's Congress, which runs Mar. 5-14 in Beijing, focuses on two crucial economic challenges: containing inflation and raising incomes. Yet Premier Wen Jiabao's opening review of the government work report—China's version of the State of the Union—revealed another concern. "Rampant corruption in some areas" has emerged in China, Wen warned close to 3,000 Congress members in a nationwide broadcast.

The work report, available on government websites, is a compendium of everything that infuriates your average Chinese citizen. There's the use of expensive foreign cars by officials; excessive wining and dining by civil servants at public expense; and the practice by top bureaucrats' families of using their connections to enrich themselves.