China's anti-graft drive targets art

Beijing

FIRST went the fancy banquets, then the lavish gift-giving. Now, China's ruling Communist Party has set its sights on a new target in its anti-corruption drive: art and literary prizes.

China's proliferation of cultural awards has raised alarm among the party's much-feared anti-corruption investigators, who worry that government officials are using them as a means of improving their clout, according to the official Xinhua news agency. At a meeting on Monday in Changsha - the capital of Hunan, Communist China's founding father Mao Zedong's home province - culture ministry officials vowed to "strictly prohibit the obtaining of illegitimate benefits in the name of art", Xinhua reported.