Corruption battle boosted

Party to ramp up supervision of low - and high-placed officials to stamp out graft

The Communist Party of China will fight corruption with greater determination as comprehensively and strictly as possible, the 19th CPC National Congress spokesman said on Tuesday.

Several serious and significant corruption cases have unfolded in recent years, including those of Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Guo Boxiong, Xu Caihou, Sun Zhengcai and Ling Jihua, who have been punished in accordance with the Party's disciplines and national laws, spokesman Tuo Zhen said at a news conference ahead of the congress scheduled to open on Wednesday morning.

All the former officials noted had been members of the CPC Central Committee before they were accused. "This means anyone in the Party who violates disciplines and laws will be punished, no matter how high his or her position is," Tuo said.

The Party has increased its self-supervision, conducting 12 rounds of inspections on 277 Party organizations, all within one term of the Central Committee for the first time, he added.

Through fighting corrupt officials, the Party also has strengthened its internal structure, he said, adding that the Party formulated and revised 90 internal regulations over the past few years.

Tuo said selection of Party officials is and will be made strictly, "and we'll increase efforts to supervise the selection, making sure the selected officials are clean and highly qualified."

He also said that China is preparing to roll out the pilot program for building a unified supervision system to fight corruption on a nationwide basis.

The centralized, unified, authoritative and efficient national supervision system aims to oversee all government employees with public power, he said.

The disciplinary commission and supervision commission will work under the same roof and share resources and personnel, he added.

Such a program has been piloted since November 2016 in Shanxi and Zhejiang provinces and Beijing, which have set up the three levels of supervision commissions: provincial, city and county levels. The pilot program has achieved solid results, Tuo said.

Contact the writers at caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn