China Focus: Highlighting Party rules to discourage cliques, factions

China's anti-graft roadmap for 2015 underscores the importance of Party discipline and rules, which experts believe is to discourage those forming cliques and factions within the Communist Party.

"Party officials, especially senior ones, must observe Party rules," said a communique issued after the fifth plenary session of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), which ended on Wednesday.

Stressing Party rules as the bottom line, the CCDI demanded senior officials toe the line and warned that the CPC will not tolerate cronyism nor allow fakery and sycophancy.

It warned senior Party officials against breaking Party rules and conspiring together for private interests.

Laws govern a country, while rules and discipline manage Party officials, said Ma Huaide, vice president of the China University of Political Science.

In China, Party rules are the law within the CPC. More than 86 million Party members must abide by both the law and the Party rules.

Party rules encompass discipline as well as CPC traditions, some of which are "unwritten rules," Ma said. Running the Party according to rules reflects the Party's resolution of tightening up internal management.

Addressing the CCDI plenum on Tuesday, President Xi Jinping demanded discipline and rules move to a more important position, declaring Party rules an important test of loyalty for members.

Xi said the atmosphere of discipline and rules must be systemic within the whole Party, and "leading cadres, especially senior leading cadres, must play an exemplary role."

During the CPC Central Committee's plenary meeting last October, Xi said some Party members disregarded discipline and rules by engaging themselves in collusion and cronyism, "forming cliques and factions or even creating rumors."

Gao Bo, deputy secretary-general of the Clean Government Studies Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Xi had repeatedly stressed the importance of rules and discipline because of violations by party cadres in the past.

"If the party was a house, the rules are the beams and frames. Without the rules, the building is only a castle in the sky," Gao said.

Ma said Party rules are stricter than laws. Party membership means one should always demand high standards and discipline of oneself all the time. For example, the CPC does not allow the existence of "naked officials" whose family have moved overseas, to prevent corrupt officials fleeing overseas.

Moreover, Party members are not allowed to hold lavish banquets and accept costly gifts, according to the CPC's frugality rules.

Immoral behavior, such as adultery, will also lead to warnings and punishment for Party members.

China's fierce anti-corruption campaign in 2014 saw a number of high profile cases that shocked the country, including high-ranking state officials such as Zhou Yongkang, Xu Caihou, Ling Jihua and Su Rong.

According to the CCDI, cases involving 68 high-level officials are under investigation or have been closed. Endi