China plans national supervision law

China aims to pass a national supervision law and set up a new commission next year in a bid to further “integrate resources” in the fight against corruption in the Party and government, the Communist Party of China said yesterday.

The moves will be made during the country’s annual parliamentary meeting early next year, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party’s anti-graft watchdog.

China will extend its current corruption supervision pilot program to cover the entire nation in the next few months.

By the end of this year or early 2018, supervisory commissions will be set up by the People’s Congress at provincial, city and county levels across the country, to ensure that “all public servants exercising public power” are subject to supervision, according to a plan circulated by the General Office of the Party’s Central Committee.

The three levels of commissions are part of the Party’s plan to establish a national supervisory system that oversees all state organs and civil servants in order to curb corruption and underhand behavior.

In January, pilot programs were launched in Beijing and in Shanxi and Zhejiang provinces.

According to the new plan, the decision to launch the pilot supervisory reform across the country on the basis of experiences in these three areas is a major strategic move to implement the spirit of the recently concluded 19th CPC National Congress and promote strict Party governance.

The move is key to improving the country’s national supervisory system with Chinese characteristics, and reinforcing self-supervision of the Party and the country, according to the plan.

Beijing, Shanxi and Zhejiang will continue to deepen their pilot reform, while the remaining 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions will set up the three levels of commissions.

They should work to integrate anti-corruption resources, clarify the commissions’ responsibilities, define their jurisdiction and means to investigate crimes and punish corrupt officials, and set up a coordination mechanism with law enforcement and judicial authorities, the plan said, adding that centralized and unified leadership of the Party over the pilot program should be strengthened. 

Yesterday, China’s new top graft buster called on fellow members of the CCDI to secure a “sweeping victory” in the fight against corruption.

Addressing the first meeting of the Standing Committee of the 19th CCDI, Zhao Leji, CCDI secretary, said the Party’s graft busters must take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide for their work.

Zhao, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Party’s Central Committee, said it is the Party’s primary political task to study and implement the spirit of the national congress which enshrined Xi Jinping Thought as a new component of the Party’s guide for action.

Members of the CCDI Standing Committee should uphold and strengthen the overall Party leadership as well as the good practices and experiences of their predecessors, to secure a sweeping victory in the fight against corruption, he said.

They must improve the supervisory system of the Party and the nation, and make greater efforts to ensure officials do not dare be corrupt, institutionalize the legal framework so it is not possible to be corrupt, and create a moral compass so officials do not want to be corrupt, Zhao said.