President Hu Jintao has asked officials at all levels to be industrious¹ and thrifty² to cope with the economic downturn, and give priority to what people need.

"Under the current situation, maintaining (the practice of) hard work and frugality³ makes practical sense," he said in a keynote speech at a plenary session of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) top anti-corruption⁴ body yesterday.

Austerity should be practiced in all fields and officials should be honest and practical, he told the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection⁵.

"Officials must see the facts and tell the truth. They must do practical work and produce actual results."

The "interests of the people" should be the priority of all official work, he said, and urged government and CPC officials to act in conformity⁶ with people's needs to ease their worries.

Though the fight against corruption has been successful so far, "the anti-corruption drive is still a long, complicated and arduous⁷ task", he said.

In the fight against graft⁸, punishment and prevention should be given equal importance and "symptoms and root causes addressed simultaneously⁹", Hu said.

He asked discipline inspectors¹⁰ to be "conscientious¹¹" while performing their duty and to deal seriously with corruption cases that hurt public interest. "Supervision¹² on officials should be strengthened to ensure the proper use of power," he said.

Hu's remarks once again show the CPC's determination to root out corruption, experts said. "They show the focus of this year's anti-corruption work is still 'problems of people's livelihood¹³'," said Li Chengyan, head of Peking University's Clean Government Research Center.

In April, the CPC announced a five-year plan to fight corruption, saying that "problems of people's livelihood" would be the focus of future campaigns, Li said. Such problems usually occur in the business, education, healthcare and construction sectors¹⁴.

The president dealt with other concerns arising out of the global financial crisis, too, Li said. "Given a weakening economy and lower tax revenue, it's necessary to care more about the people and cut unnecessary government expense."

The Shanghai municipal, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Henan provincial¹⁵ and some other local governments have decided¹⁶ to cut their operational costs this year. For example, the Guangdong provincial government has promised a "zero increase" in the purchase of cars, conferences and receptions, as well as officials' overseas inspection tours.