China’s anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), is set to meet today in what experts say will see efforts against corruption strengthened.
According to China Daily, the 19th CCDI will see participants in the session – scheduled to run through until Saturday – will discuss deepening the reform of the current ant-graft system with the power to fight corruption further centralized and more authority given to Communist Party of China leaders.
“Setting up the new supervision commissions is a major reform that will have new deployments and integrate anti-corruption resources, including existing supervisory, anti-corruption or bribery and duty-related prevention agencies within the governments and procuratorates to combat graft issues,” said Jiang Laiyong, a senior researcher at the China Anti-Corruption Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
“Under the reform, the new supervision commissions at each level will become more authoritative to combat corruption under the direct leadership of Party committees and in particular, they’ll effectively improve the capability to hunt down Chinese corrupt fugitives who are still at large abroad and recover their illicit assets.”
President Xi Jinping stated in October that stated that new supervision commissions would be established nation-wide that would help better investigation of public servants. A draft supervision law is expected to be submitted to the next National People’s Congress plenary session in March, China Daily said.
CCDI figures show that 159,100 people were found guilty of graft or discipline violations in 2017, with 61,000 officials punished for violating the eight-point Regulation of the Centre.
