But Li -- who once cultivated an image as a poet, scholar and writer -- had bought his own job by giving his superior 320,000 yuan ($48,000). He then reportedly amassed 14 million yuan in bribes and kickbacks, mainly from illegal land deals.

In late 2009, he was sentenced to life in prison.

The People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, has cited Li's case as an example of rampant graft -- one of the biggest bugbears of a government eager to tamp down all sources of public discontent.

"Building clean government is a long-term yet urgent task as well as the ardent hope of the people," Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday in his speech to open the annual session of the National People's Congress, or parliament.

"We will act more quickly to solve serious problems in combating corruption and promoting clean government," he said, singling out officials who "abuse power for personal gain, neglect their duties or infringe upon others' rights."

Corruption is cited every year as a top priority for the government, but the battle on graft is more crucial than ever to the party, with major leadership changes due in 2012-2013 when President Hu Jintao and Wen step aside.

"To steadfastly punish and prevent corruption is a matter linked to the support of the people and the life and death of the party," top party graft-buster He Guoqiang said in a report on corruption before the NPC session.

Experts however say the problem is so ingrained in the Communist system that the leadership faces a Sisyphean task.

"The main cause of corruption on the local level is a lack of control over political power," Hu Xingdou, economist at the Beijing Institute of Technology, told AFP.

"There is no democratic supervision over officials by local people and even the internal supervision mechanisms of the party are lacking. Local governments supervise themselves so it is natural that corruption is becoming worse and worse."

Well-placed government jobs have long been a way to riches in China, especially during the last 30 years of booming economic growth, but recent corruption cases have revealed stunning greed -- and devil-may-care bravado.

Liu Zhijun was sacked as railways minister last month for allegedly taking more than 800 million yuan ($122 million) in kickbacks linked to contracts for the expansion of China's high-speed rail network, the Global Times said.

Liu, 58, also kept at least 10 mistresses, the report said.

Government efforts to curb graft have not kept pace with the lengthening list of tempting reasons officials have to become corrupt, Sun Yan, an expert on corruption in China at the City University of New York, told AFP.

"Among the main motives for bigger and bigger graft is to send one's kids to high school or college in a Western country, to purchase an immigration status to one of those countries and to purchase housing for kids while attending (overseas) schools," Sun said.

"Other motives include to purchase and invest in real estate... to pay for the maintenance of multiple mistresses and to purchase luxury brand name goods," Sun said.

Guan Jianjun, the 41-year-old former head of a police patrol team in the northern city of Yangquan, is yet another prime example of greed gone bad.

Guan was arrested in December for organising gambling and prostitution rackets and had about 100 million yuan in personal assets frozen, Xinhua news agency reported.

Besides owning 29 apartments in Beijing and other Chinese cities, Guan also allegedly owned a Rolls-Royce worth more than $1.2 million.

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