Party disciplines complementary to rule of law

Usually the Party's discipline inspection commissions are responsible for investigating suspected corruption. According to the CPC's regulations, the discipline inspection officials are empowered to check any files or data of the suspects, and to talk with suspects to better understand their situation. More importantly, the discipline inspection officials can request the suspects answer inquiries at a designated place and time when necessary. It's a way of self-disciplining the Party, and has proven effective in the fight against corruption.

Reinforcing the internal rules of the Party under the strategy of comprehensively running the Party strictly, produces a good work style. It has been a long-established rule of the Party to turn down offers of favors, treats or gift and uphold good moral integrity.

This is applied not only to the working lives but also the personal lives of the Party members. In some graft cases recently, "adultery" has been revealed in the reports of the discipline inspection investigations. It reflects that the Party puts much emphasis on both the social and private morality of Party officials. Those who if have improper sexual relations will not get a legal penalty, but in line with the CPC's rules, they would receive demotion or even deposition. All these indicate that the Party is setting a higher standard for its members.

The CPC has worked out a complete system and a systematic strategy to fight against corruption. The anti-corruption strategies have been working effectively, including the actions specially targeting the "big tigers", or senior officials, and dispatching inspection teams to the Party organs, government departments and State-owned enterprises to accept the reports from the public.

The influential anti-corruption campaign of the CPC is to meet the demands of China's efforts to deepen reform, which is also necessary to reinforce the foundations for the CPC's rule and improve its credibility. The campaign will continue and more "big tigers" will be caught. The discipline inspection commissions of the CPC are advised to increase the transparency of their anti-corruption efforts, fully satisfy the public's right to know and right of supervision. Meanwhile, China's democratic political system should be improved continuously as the anti-corruption campaign is carried out, so as to ensure the anti-corruption efforts meet their goal.

The author is dean of Anti-Corruption Research School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.