Strengthen inspection to fight corruption

The central leadership of the Communist Party of China recently updated its regulation on inspection teams, the full text of which was published by Xinhua News Agency on Aug 13. Actually, the earliest regulation for central inspection teams dates back to 1928. As one of its key anti-corruption systems, inspection groups regularly or irregularly sent by the central leadership played a key role in preventing corruption in the Party, a necessary prerequisite for its final success in the revolution.

The central inspection system was strengthened in 1990 and included in the Party constitution at the 17th Party Congress in 2007. Two years later, a specialized Party regulation on inspection was drafted and issued. After the 18th Party Congress in November 2012, during which the top Party leadership launched an anti-corruption campaign, more attention has been paid to the system.

Stricter requirements are demanded of inspectors, who are supposed to make careful investigations and find clues that lead to possible corruption. Each time an inspection group is formed, a new leader is appointed to make sure there is no relation between the inspector and the inspected. And inspection teams are given ample power so that inspected officials cannot find powerful figures to protect them.

CPC Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping, as the top leader, has several times asked the whole Party to strengthen the fight against corruption. Until now, the Central Leading Group For Inspection Work, headed by him, has had 45 meetings and sent seven groups of teams to 118 Party and governmental departments, which cover 32 provincial-level government departments and 55 centrally-administered State-owned enterprises.

In the coming future we will make more efforts on the following aspects.

The central inspection teams will be prompted to be stricter with every department inspected. They will carry out health checks on the Party, because tolerance of any discipline-breaking behavior could lead to fatal cancer. And only by being strict can they save the Party from being defeated by its own corruption.

Discipline is to be strictly implemented, and inspection teams will lay emphasis on whether inspected officials or organizations have followed discipline. Earlier officials used to be forgiven for minor faults, but facts prove this has only prompted them to commit worse deeds. Corruption must be curbed at the earliest stage possible.

Innovation is encouraged to make inspections more efficient and cover wider areas. Inspection teams are rather free to choose how to do their job. They may, as authorized by discipline norms, inspect a department without serving it notice in advance so as to prevent the possibility of the inspected officials hiding clues. Also, they could inspect a department a day after carrying the first round of inspection. Only with creativity can they carry out an overall effective inspection with limited human, monetary and other resources.

As deterrence to corrupt officials, when inspection teams unearth corruption or related problems in a department, those responsible will get deserved punishment without leniency. As a majority of the inspected departments, like provincial governments or SOEs, are rather powerful and could mobilize resources to resist decisions from inspection groups, the central leadership will back inspection groups to make sure discipline violators are punished.

Deep analysis is also of key importance to inspections because only by making clear the origins of problems can we solve them. Inspection teams are responsible for drafting in-depth reports and providing advice on improving disciplinary mechanisms, so as to improve our disciplinary regulations and prevent corruption.

Inspection teams are expected to have a strong sense of responsibility. At various levels, Party chiefs assume the role of inspection leading groups, and report to higher committees. The central leadership requires them to be serious with the job.

The inspection teams are part of a bigger, comprehensive supervision system, and we will ensure there is coordination among all groups to make sure power is shut in the cage. The inspection system will be combined with other systems to make it effective.

To promote the rule of law as advocated by the top leadership, the CPC as the country's ruling party must regulate its various levels of organizations and members with discipline first.

The central leadership has delicately considered and collected enough precious advice before updating the specific regulation this time to make sure it can better serve the needs of inspections and suit the new situations. We expect various levels of the Party's organizations and all its members to render support to the inspection teams, and strictly implement disciplinary inspection.

The author is secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China. The article is an excerpt from his signed article in Chinese, which first appeared in People's Daily.