Committed to a clean society

Calling for efforts to ensure that disciplinary agencies at all levels enjoy "relatively independent and authoritative supervisory power", Xi said the authorities should strengthen supervision of power. Emphasizing that the use of power should be lawful and transparent to facilitate public supervision and prevent misuse or abuse of power, he said greater efforts will be made to hold officials accountable for wrongdoings so that laws and regulations are not confined to ink and paper.

In November, the Third Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee vowed to take a series of measures to restrain the use of power and promote clean governance, including ordered disclosure of assets by newly appointed officials and building of a system for allotment of houses to officials above certain levels. Experts say that since these reforms are of huge public concern, they are likely to be carried out in the months ahead along with the working out of other details.

Xi stressed the importance of a stricter Party and political discipline at the second plenum of the 18th Party CCDI in early 2013. Reiterating it at the third plenum, he said: "Obedience to Party discipline is unconditional and disciplinary departments at all levels should follow the discipline and investigate all cases of violation." Party organizations at all levels should put in all their efforts to make discipline a "high voltage line that is always on".

Organizational slackness and disciplinary laxness have made some Party organizations indifferent to any work that they think will not do them good. The message of the third CCDI plenum is that, to build an anti-corruption system, the authorities have to bring all levels of Party organizations and the huge number of Party members in line with the CPC Central Committee in political consciousness, which has no room for slackness.

"The power-for-money trade is a major hotbed of corruption and the lack of supervision may give rise to corruption and misuse of power," Ma Huaide, vice-president of China University of Political Science and Law, was quoted as saying by a newspaper affiliated to the Party's top anti-graft watchdog. "Strengthening effective supervision of and restraining power remain a key part of the country's ongoing drive to promote innovations of its anti-corruption mechanism," he said.

Stressing the importance of implementing the Party's measures, Xin Ming, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said: "In the process of comprehensive and deepening reforms, all central regulations and prohibitions should be strictly enforced."

And Li Faquan, chief of the Shandong provincial anti-corruption watchdog, said: "Lax discipline and weak organizational concept indeed are a potential concern for the Party. Xi's remarks at the plenum were pragmatic and aimed at eliminating the malpractice existing in some Party organizations."

The authors are writers with China Daily. China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News, People's Daily and Xinhua contributed to the article.