China's top graft-buster Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said that the country's sports establishment ‘must learn the lessons from a corruption scandal involving a former deputy sports minister, continue to root out corruption, and curb a win-at-all costs mentality’.

China was hit by two new sports corruption scandals last year, with probes into deputy sports minister Xiao Tian, who sat on China's Olympics committee, and another into the country's then-volleyball chief.

In a statement released following a meeting on learning the lessons from Xiao's case, the top graft-buster said the sports sector needed to do more to tackle corruption and not rest on its laurels.

"At the same time as fully affirming successes, we must clearly recognize the many challenges facing the development of our sports industry, and that the problems which exist should not be overlooked," stated the commission's team based in the sports ministry.

Chinese sports minister Liu Peng warned last year that China had to ditch its obsession with gold if it really wanted to weed out corruption.

Last month, President Xi Jinping said China must hold a Winter Olympics that is "clean as the snow", in an indirect reference to the scandals surrounding Xiao and another former top official linked to the Olympic bid.

Source: reuters

Proofread by John Devlin.