China Mobile says enlisting executives' families in graft fight

BEIJING (Reuters) - China Mobile, the country's largest wireless carrier, is asking top executives and their families to sign letters promising to help in the fight against corruption, the company said on Wednesday, as part of the government's battle against deep-rooted graft. China's anti-corruption investigators pledged earlier this year to begin scrutinizing China Mobile Ltd and China Telecom Corp Ltd after a probe into China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd ensnared several high-ranking executives. In a statement carried on the Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog's website, China Mobile Communications Corp [CHNMC.UL], the parent of the Hong Kong-listed firm, said that for the last four years, April had been dedicated to anti-corruption education. Executives have been taken on prison visits and to listen in on court cases, and there have been 1,373 educational film showings, the company said. "(We have) organized key workers to sign letters promising to work in a clean style, and organized the family members of leaders and key workers to sign letters promising to help with being clean and honest, to strengthen self-discipline," the company said. Suppliers have in some cases also been included in the anti-corruption education, it added. After completing sweeps of central and provincial governments last year, the party's graft-busting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said it would turn its attention to China's vast state-owned enterprises, which have long been plagued by underperformance despite reform efforts by central leaders. Since assuming power in late 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to go after powerful "tigers" as well as lowly "flies", warning, as have others before him, that corruption is so severe it could threaten the party's grip on power. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Edmund Klamann)