China's anti-graft drive going deep

President Xi Jinping launched the unprecedented fight targeting Party, government, military and state-owned enterprises, soon after he came to power in late 2012. The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) headed by Wang Qishan, has played a central role in the campaign.

In contrast with the high-profile drive by top graft-busters, local authorities failed to show their resolve to weed out corruption with some accused of not taking the fight seriously, and brushing problems under the carpet.

Critics have said that this new round of reshuffles would break long-standing connections between local governments and supervisors, making the local watchdogs more independent and powerful.

"The central authority needs to sharpen local supervisors' ability to discover and investigate corruption," said Xin Ming from the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

The crackdown is not a one off campaign and the central authority has set about implementing institutional safeguards against graft.

In April, three documents were unveiled that gave more power to anti-graft watchdogs in their leadership selection, to increase the authority of discipline agencies.

The regulations clarify that potential leaders of provincial-level discipline inspection agencies will be nominated and assessed mainly by superior-level inspection agencies and organization departments.

Currently, each local discipline inspection agency is under the dual leadership of the CPC committee at the same level and the inspection agency of a superior level.

Many agencies are reticent to investigate or report corruption by the CPC committee at the same level.

The CPC has also targeted its rules in an effort to institutionalize the corruption purge.