China's top anti-corruption agencies have experienced an unprecedented reshuffle, according to a report in Tuesday's Legal Evening Post.

The internal reshuffle involved 108 high-ranking officials in eight departments of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Ministry of Supervision.

Sixty-seven officials were reassigned between departments and 41 reallocated positions within them.

They were selected according to the time they had been in post (over five, eight or ten years) and to the particular posts that they held.

"If an official stays in one post for too long, they are more prone to corruption," Shao Daosheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the newspaper.

"The reshuffle will not only prevent them from indulging in nepotism, it should also stimulate creativity and encourage mutual supervision," Shao added.

In 1996, the Ministry of Personnel issued the Provisional Regulations on Reshuffling of Government Civil Servants, which required officials in post for over five years to change positions.

"Many government departments implement the regulations but such a big reshuffle involving over a hundred high-ranking officials is unprecedented," the newspaper quoted the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee as saying.

The commission and the ministry plan to widen the range of officials involved in reshuffles and to carry them out each year.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2005)