A senior communist party official on Monday said that the momentum of corruption has been firmly curbed thanks to President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive which began a decade ago.

Xiao Pei, deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, told a press conference held on the sidelines of the 20th party congress in Beijing that the fight against corruption is integral to the Communist Party’s success.

“Nothing can easily bring down a government like corruption. The fight against corruption is the most thorough form of self-reform,” he said.

He pointed out that official figures showed the effectiveness of the anti-graft campaign.

Xiao explained that of all the officials investigated in the past decade, 48 percent had committed their first acts of corruption and misconduct more than ten years ago. He added only 11 percent of the officials committed their first offences in the past five years.

“The report of the party congress made the important assessment that in the new era we carried out an unprecedented fight against corruption, achieved overwhelming victory and fully cemented the gains.”

He said the anti-corruption campaign will continue as long as necessary.

“As long as there are breeding grounds and the conditions for corruption, there will be no let-up in our efforts to fight corruption. We must always sound the clarion call against corruption, and this campaign can only move forward, not backward,” he said.

“We must win the critical and long-term battle against corruption, to make sure that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity and desire to be corrupt.”