China Voice: Sharpening internal supervision

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee announced Thursday a revised regulation on discipline inspections, expanding the scope of inspections and maximizing deterrence in the fight against corruption.

The rules increase the scope of inspections conducted by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) to include Party heads of higher people's courts and provincial-level procuratorates, leading officials of ministries and top executives of key state-owned enterprises and financial institutions.

Under the previous regulation, inspections by the CCDI concentrated on leading officials in provincial governments, CPC provincial-level committees, provincial political advisory bodies and provincial legislatures.

The revision, the first since the regulation was introduced in 2009, institutionalized effective practice applied during a high-profile anti-corruption campaign starting after Xi Jinping took the CPC helm in late 2012.

More emphasis will be placed on inspections of the enforcement of political rules and Party policies as well as prevention of cliques. Bribery, trading power for personal gains, electoral fraud, buying and selling official posts, and immoral behavior are also on the radar.

Running the Party strictly in order to root out corruption, which has threatened the survival of the CPC, is high on the Party's agenda. To reinforce counter-corruption efforts, the Party makes inspection a major tool to discipline the Party in recent years.

By expanding the coverage of inspections, internal supervision extends to every corner of the CPC, strengthening anti-corruption efforts and showing the leadership's resolve to run the Party strictly.

According to the revised regulation, inspections focus on specific aspects of a subject -- whether an individual, a certain project, a fund or a specific incident. In addition, team members of targeted inspections often come from more diversified backgrounds, from professional inspectors, disciplinary officials to part-timers from government organs such as the National Audit Office.

Furthermore, members of inspection teams change very frequently in order to avoid corruption or power deals. More flexible ways will be adopted to make inspections more effective and maximize deterrence.

Corrupt officials probed and punished by the CCDI after the previous rounds of inspections include Wan Qingliang, former Party chief of Guangzhou of Guangdong Province, and Wu Changshun, former police chief of Tianjin Municipality and former vice chairman of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Wang Qishan, who heads the CCDI, described targeted inspections as a way to "know by a handful the whole sack."

Problems uncovered during the inspections had an extremely harmful impact on society. Some officials were found to have interfered in graft investigations, trying to outwit graft-busters but failed anyway. Others destroyed or fabricated evidence and agreed with others not to give away each other to stall investigation efforts. Some powerful officials took revenge on whistle-blowers. Endi