CPC likely to toughen anti-graft fight

The fight against corruption is likely to be strengthened with more concrete measures during the Party's plenary session starting next Saturday, analysts said.

The latest anti-graft move came on Thursday as Liao Shaohua, Party secretary of Zunyi, Guizhou province, was dismissed from his post for "grave discipline violations", according to the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Liao, a member of the standing committee of the Party's Guizhou provincial committee, is the 12th minister-level official under investigation since the 18th National Congress of the Party in November last year, when the Party's new leadership was elected.

The falling of the senior officials reflects the ruling Party's determination to fight corruption, and clean governance is likely to be highlighted during the CPC's upcoming plenary session, said Jiang Ming'an, a law professor in anti-graft research at Peking University.

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee will be held from Nov 9 to 12.

The Party leaders will review a draft decision on deepening reforms during the session, according to a statement on Tuesday by the top-ruling CPC Central Committee Political Bureau.

The CPC has had a tradition of making important decisions in third plenary sessions since 1978 when the third plenary session of the 11th CPC Central Committee put forward the reform and opening-up policy. The third plenary session of the 14th CPC Central Committee in 1993 highlighted the development of socialist market economy, paving the way for the country's economic takeoff in the subsequent two decades.

The Party will strengthen its disciplinary power by dispatching inspection teams, through which corruption will be better supervised, said Jiang, the professor.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, the Party's top anti-graft agency, announced on Thursday that it has dispatched a second batch of 10 inspection teams to the ministries, commissions, State-owned enterprises and local governments.

The inspection teams will collect information about officials and submit the tips to the anti-graft commission for further investigation, it said.

The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Party's personnel agency, required in a regulation released on Wednesday that government officials are not allowed to get payment by doing part-time jobs in enterprises.

Retired and resigned officials could not be employed by enterprises before being approved by the government agencies that they previously worked for, according to the regulation.

Xin Ming, a professor of administrative research with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said that such a regulation was already implemented in 2008.

The newly released version has corrected loopholes in the previous version, he added.

Some incumbent government officials are hired by companies, which violates the regulations and causes negative social effects, he said.