2nd LD-Writethru: Xi demands improved regulations, forceful implementation in anticorruption drive

Chinese President Xi Jinping said efforts to weed out undesirable work styles and corruption should rely on improved law and regulations and forceful implementation of such rules.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks at a study session attended by members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Friday.

As the CPC prepares to celebrate the 94th anniversary of its founding next Wednesday, top leaders gathered to discuss how the Party can rid itself of corruption.

At the study session, Xi called for efforts to intensify and improve the construction, management and supervision of the Party and said that weeding out undesirable work styles and corruption fundamentally relies on law and regulations, which must be at the heart of the drive.

"We must make sure officials dare not be corrupt, cannot be corrupt and do not want to be corrupt," he said.

Xi stressed the importance of the Party's campaign to promote clean governance and fight corruption in comprehensively strictly governing the Party as well as in carrying out the "Four Comprehensives," a strategic layout for national renewal.

"Though previous efforts had succeeded in refreshing the Party and government, and renewing the faith of Party members and the public, problems remain and the CPC still faces an uphill battle against corruption," Xi said.

"There can be no rest or turning back in our anticorruption drive," he added.

Xi said strict and effective law and regulations will be a fundamental solution for the Party's clean-governance and anticorruption drive and such rules should be formulated based on the CPC Central Committee's requirements, the public's expectations and practical demands and experiences.

Current rules and regulations need to be revised, while new ones should be drafted and obsolete ones be annulled to improve the anticorruption system, he said.

Also, he noted that the anticorruption rules and regulations should keep in line with the Party's Constitution and the country's laws, so that the entire regulatory system may function cohesively and effectively.

"The vitality of the law and regulations rest with the implementation of them," Xi said, stressing that the improvement and the enforcement of the rules should be given equal attention.

Efforts should be made to promote the awareness of the rule of law and the CPC's system and discipline among the Party's members and cadres, Xi said.

"All people are equal before the law and regulations, and the enforcement of such rules allows no privilege or exception," he said.

He also called for strengthened supervision to push forward the implementation.

"We must discipline violators seriously, making no exceptions for the powerful, not indulging minor offenses and not letting violators go, even if they are legion," Xi went on, adding that the CPC should guard against "broken windows theory," referring to the idea that petty crime need to be stopped to prevent more serious crime.

Moreover, he pledged to optimize the accountability mechanism for officials in line with current law, saying that officials' performance in implementing the anticorruption norm should be put under strict scrutiny and included in their clean-governance assessments.

Group study is a system China's top leadership uses to discuss major issues. Friday's session was the 24th group study of the 18th Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Also on Friday, the CPC issued a new regulation on the performance of officials, promising that ineptitude could result in demotion or dismissal. It also revised a regulation on discipline inspection, the first change since the rule came into force in 2009. Endi