China to inspect all major state-owned enterprises

BEIJING - Following an important review meeting on corruption efforts that concluded on Wednesday, anti-graft authorities have been set the task of inspecting all major state-owned enterprises (SOE) this year, a communique issued after the meeting said.

The communique was released after the three-day fifth plenary session of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) 18th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Inspectors must also step up supervision on SOEs across the board, the document said.

The document did not explicitly define the SOEs to be inspected. Normally the term is used to refer to 153 state-owned enterprises supervised by the State Council's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, as well as state-owned banks and other financial institutions supervised by State Council commissions.

Inspections on ministries, provincial governments, big SOEs and public institutions have been coordinated since 2013.

Six SOEs under the care of the central government have been inspected and in the latest round eight more were scrutinized.

Internal inspections have led to several inquires into SOE executives, including Ren Yong, assistant general manager of Dongfeng Motor Corp.; and China Southern Airlines's vice general manager Chen Gang and its operations director Tian Xiaodong.

The CCDI will also establish new offices in eight central government departments and the CPC Central Committee, according to the communique.

The CCDI currently has offices in 52 of over 140 central Party and government departments. In December, it established seven new offices in central government departments, the CPC Central Committee, the top legislature and national political advisory body.