China’s Communist Party graft-busters to widen political watch in 2016
Communist Party graft-busters will expand the scope of their monitoring to all cadres this year as they press on with their top priority of ensuring members maintain political discipline and loyalty, the watchdog said in a communique on Thursday.
The statement came at the end of a three-day annual meeting in Beijing of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. It defined discipline as the No 1 task for the agency.
“[The CCDI] should step up monitoring of political discipline to ensure the implementation of the party’s line and policies and to defend party unity,” it said. The CCDI had the same main mission last year but the focus then was on discipline in the upper ranks.
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Peking University governance professor Zhuang Deshui said political discipline had more prominence than ever, especially since new punishment for breaches of party discipline was released in October.
“The focus was on senior officials before but now it has been extended to all party members. The scope of supervision is wider and the requirements greater,” Zhuang said.
He said party members had to meet a higher standard of political discipline and it was more than a simple corruption issue.
If there are no benefits for subordinates, why should they work themselves to the bone for you?
“The harm done by breaching political discipline is far more serious than that done by mere corruption,” he said. “The subtext of the central leadership’s emphasis on political discipline is to maintain their authority.”