China to launch new anti-graft inspection in 2016

Wang Qishan (C), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, attends a meeting on anti-graft inspection in Beijing, capital of China, Feb 23, 2016. [Xinhua/Li Tao]

BEIJING -- China's central authority will conduct a fresh round of anti-corruption inspections, the first of 2016, into 32 entities and four provinces.

Inspection teams will be dispatched to Party and state organs, including the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement on Tuesday.

At a Tuesday meeting on new inspections, Wang Qishan, head of the CCDI, highlighted CPC leadership in the inspection. Noting that the Party's leadership is a political leadership, Wang said the inspection should reinforce the political fundamentals of CPC rule.

He called on inspectors to study and understand speeches by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and keep a "high degree of conformity" with the CPC Central Committee in their minds and in practice.

He told the inspectors to be politically sober, loyal to the Party and be strict to themselves in observing the Party code of conduct and frugality requirements.

The inspection will also cover the General Administration of Customs, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the China Food and Drug Administration, the statement said.

Organizations, such as the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the All-China Women's Federation as well as Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, will also be put under scrutiny.

The new round of inspection will include a reexamination of four provinces -- Liaoning, Anhui, Shandong and Hunan, which have been inspected in previous rounds of checks, to ensure the effect of inspection lasts.