Sweeping changes needed to tackle graft in China, say analysts

The Communist Party's decision to expand the reach of its internal graft-busters has been praised as a positive step, but analysts warned that more sweeping changes were needed to cure the epidemic of corruption on the mainland.

The party's Central Committee resolved at its four-day plenum last week to give the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) broader authority over ministries, state agencies and regional governments.

It would also make permanent key elements of party chief Xi Jinping's ongoing anti-graft campaign: basing inspection teams in central agencies and party offices and routinely sending task forces to state-owned enterprises and provincial and local governments.

The Central Committee called on the party "to completely implement CCDI's [practice] of sending their representatives to be stationed in central party and state organs" and "to improve the inspection tour system to cover all local governments, government departments, state- owned enterprises and public institutions".

The party said the moves would strengthen CCDI's management of local disciplinary watchdogs as they work to "clarify and standardise the existing dual-leadership system".

Analysts agreed there would probably be more graft cases, but they argued a more radical overhaul was needed to fight the root causes of corruption.