CPC ramps up supervision
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 27, 2016
The Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) took place in Beijing on October 24-27. The meeting discussed issues related to running the Party with discipline in a bid to root out corruption. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a speech.
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The Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee is held in Beijing from Oct. 24 to 27. |
The meeting called on all Party members to "closely unite around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core." It stressed the importance of adherence to the collective leadership system.
Two documents were deliberated and adopted, namely the Norms of Political Life Within the Party Under the New Situation and the Provisional Intra-Party Supervision Regulation, according to a communiqué released right after the session. The session also passed a resolution on convening the 19th CPC National Congress in the latter half of 2017.
It endorsed prior decisions to expel four former senior officials from the Party and promised to resolutely address election malpractice by putting an end to the buying and selling of official posts or vote rigging.
Members of the CPC Central Committee are elected once every five years by the CPC National Congress. The central committee holds a plenary session at least once a year in Beijing to make decisions on important policies, with each plenum themed on different topics.
Self improvement
Since 2012, the 18th CPC Central Committee, led by General Secretary Xi, has taken a series of measures to enforce a high level of discipline within the Party, including launching educational campaigns and carrying out organizational and institutional reform.
When Xi met the media after becoming Party leader in November 2012, he stressed that the CPC should supervise its own conduct, earnestly improve its working habits, and maintain close ties with the people. "To forge the iron, the hammer must be strong," he said, suggesting the Party must first conduct itself honestly before addressing other problems.
In December 2012, the CPC introduced an eight-point rule to tackle this goal. Officials are urged to go to the grassroots to learn about the real situations, reduce their pomp during visits and meetings, simplify documents, limit overseas visits and reduce news coverage of them, and exercise thrift.
In June 2013, the Party launched a year-long "mass line" education campaign. This aims to improve ties between Party members and the public, by focusing on tackling four undesirable working habits, namely formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.
On March 9, 2014, during China's annual legislative meeting, Xi, as state president, stressed that leaders at various levels should be strict in morality, power and self-discipline and act with honesty in decisions, business and behavior. These points were later summarized as the "Three Stricts, Three Honests" education campaign.
In February 2016, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee issued another educational campaign plan, calling on Party members to study the Constitution of the CPC and important speeches by Xi and to be a qualified Party member.
Intra-Party supervision
Intra-Party supervision is an important measure for Party governance. It mainly targets various levels of leading organs and officials, especially leaders, said Ren Jin, a professor within the Law Department of the Chinese Academy of Governance.
He explained that leading organs and officials are checked to make sure they comply with the Party Constitution and other CPC regulations as well as the national Constitution and other laws, following the democratic centralism principle. The supervision can be carried out through a number of measures including collective leadership and division of labor, disclosure of important matters, performance reports, petition responses, inspections, public opinion reviews, inquiry and cross-examination, and dismissals.
The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and lower-level commissions are dedicated organs for intra-Party supervision. The current provisional Intra-Party Supervision Regulation has been implemented since 2003. However, the situation has since changed, thus laws should be upgraded to reflect this, said Xie Chuntao, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.
At the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee meeting on September 27, members heard progress reports on revising the regulation. After incorporating public feedback into the draft, the revised regulation on intra-Party supervision was approved at the sixth plenary session.
Since China launched its anti-corruption campaign to "hunt tigers and swat flies" in late 2012, the combination of public supervision and intra-Party supervision has snared high-ranking officials and many lower-ranking ones as well as some state-owned enterprise executives.
In 2013, the CCDI, the Party's top discipline watchdog, launched an official website, Ccdi.gov.cn, which allows people to directly bring corruption and other disciplinary violations to Party attention.
From 2013 to September 2015, disciplinary watchdogs across the country investigated 1.02 million corruption cases and 1.01 million people have been punished accordingly.
Some corrupt officials and others guilty of economic crimes, who had fled overseas, have been tracked down and brought back to China through operation Fox Hunt, which was launched in 2014.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, by October 20, 634 fugitives had been captured from 67 countries and regions this year. Fifty-nine of them are suspected to have embezzled over 100 million yuan (US$14.76 million) each.
Intra-Party democracy
Intra-Party democracy is vital to the CPC and is fundamental to a positive, healthy internal political environment, according to the communiqué released after the sixth plenary session.
The Party's various responsibilities concerning decision-making, implementation and supervision must be done in accordance with the democratic principles and procedures stipulated in the Party Constitution and regulations, according to the communiqué.
"No Party organization or individual should suppress or undermine intra-Party democracy," it said.
Party authorities at all levels must conduct thorough investigations and research, and solicit opinions from various sides before making any major decisions or arrangements, said the communiqué.
The rights of Party members to know, participate in and supervise and their rights in election must be ensured, it said.
Additionally, all Party members should equally enjoy their rights stipulated in the Party Constitution while performing obligations equally, it said.
"No Party organization or member shall infringe upon the democratic rights of CPC members," the document said.
The communiqué called on authorities to make it more convenient for Party members to express their opinions and create a "political atmosphere of democratic discussion within the Party".
Party members have the right to responsibly expose or report any Party organizations or members breaking the laws or flouting the Party's disciplines, it said.
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