Appointments by top anti-graft agency seek to curb abuse of power

Disciplinary inspection is expected to improve in some regions of China now that two additional central anti-graft officials have been appointed to head local disciplinary authorities.

Cui Shaopeng, secretary-general of the nation's top anti-graft agency, was named secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection in Jilin province over the weekend.

Cui is the fourth anti-corruption official to handle local disciplinary work from the central anti-graft agency since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, Jilin Daily reported.

Cui, 53, the spokesman of the country's top discipline watchdog, was also appointed a provincial Party committee member, the newspaper said.

Cui's appointment marks a return to the province for the Beijing native, who graduated from the Philosophy School of Jilin University in 1983.

The previous Thursday, Yao Zengke, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, was appointed the discipline authority's head in Tianjin.

Yao, 55, a native of Shanxi province, graduated from Beijing Normal University in 1983, and has worked in the top discipline authority since.

In July, the central inspection group followed a city inspection by saying that Tianjin had a serious graft problem, especially in the rural grassroots.

Meanwhile, Yao, who specialized in political economics in the university, said in an interview that some local government officials worked only for their own benefit, treating their position and subordinates as private domains and retainers.

Yang Weidong, a law professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, said the fact that top disciplinary officials have been appointed to key roles in local governments reflects the central government's determination to fight graft in the country.

"Such appointments from the central authority can effectively block interference from local governments, and they will also ensure that the supervision of local disciplinary officials remains independent," Yang said. "Appointing central officials to provinces and some other regions in the country is a better way to reduce obstacles that local disciplinary officers faced and were hard to overcome in their daily work."

The two appointments within the last week follow two other such moves in recent two years. Most recently, Huang Xiaowei, who was the vice-minister at the Ministry of Supervision and also a member of the top anti-graft agency's standing committee, was transferred to the country's corruption-plagued Shanxi province in September.

Huang, 53, also was appointed the provincial disciplinary secretary and a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee.

Before Huang's arrival, four members in the province's Standing Committee had been under investigation for "suspicion of discipline violation", which usually means graft.

The first such appointment of a central government official to a local anti-graft authority was Hou Kai, who previously headed the National Audit Office. Hou, 52, was appointed secretary of the discipline authority in Shanghai in November 2013.

Before Hou arrived in Shanghai as a member of the top discipline authority's standing committee, he worked as a leader of the central inspection group.