China's anti-graft drive going deep

During an inspection trip to coastal Zhejiang Province earlier this month, anti-graft chief Wang Qishan pledged to enhance institutional innovation and revise Party regulations on penalties.

The revisions should separate Party rules from legal provisions and give more emphasis to political discipline and regulation, he said.

In China, Party discipline is stricter than the law and Party regulations on disciplinary penalties serve as a fundamental guide for the CPC to punish its members.

"To strictly govern the Party, we must make discipline the bottom line that can not be crossed by Party members," Wang said.

China's corruption purge has seen hundreds of officials being investigated, ranging from Zhou Yongkang, once a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, to county-level officials. The campaign has gone so far as to try to hunt down corrupt officials that have fled abroad.

The anti-graft drive is a long fight and catching those that have already broken the law cannot completely eliminate corruption, Xin noted.

"As long as there is an effective system that ensures officials are unable to be corrupt, then corruption can be purged," he added.