New CPC procedure fine-tunes oversight

The Communist Party of China has issued a revised regulation on inspection in a renewed effort to improve supervision and governance of its more than 89 million members.

Shifting its focus from fighting corruption and Party rule violations in the initial rounds of inspections, the amendment released on Friday made political inspection more prominent on the supervision agenda.

The revised rules clearly stipulate that "political inspection should be deepened, and inspections should mainly focus on upholding the Party leadership, improving Party building, and advancing comprehensive and strict rule of the Party".

The inspections should staunchly safeguard the authority and the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, and ensure the CPC is always the firm and core leadership of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, it said.

"Political inspection is a major innovation in both theory and practice of the inspection work of the 18th CPC Central Committee," said Yang Xiaochao, a member of the inspection leadership group of the CPC Central Committee.

"Incorporating requirements of political inspection into the regulation is a key point and highlight of the latest revision," Yang noted.

At a meeting on May 26, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to amend the Party's regulation on inspection work, to reflect the latest innovative practices.

The CPC inspection regulation was first put into force on a trial basis in 2009. This is the third version of the regulation following the release of a revised version in August 2015.

The regulation made public on Friday also stipulates that Party committees at both the central and provincial levels should conduct inspections on Party organizations of all localities, departments, public institutions and enterprises under their jurisdiction.

Party committees at the municipal and county levels are also required to establish special agencies to conduct inspections.

On June 21, the CPC discipline agency published the results of its 12th round of inspections into CPC organizations in provincial-level regions, central CPC and government organs, major state-owned enterprises, central financial institutions and centrally administered universities.