Graft-busters put Communist Party cadres at China's securities regulator on notice
Discipline inspectors will hold regulator's Communist Party bosses and cadres to account
Graft-busters from the securities regulator have pledged to hold party chiefs throughout the agency accountable for any abuse of power by subordinates, as investors grapple with a plunge in the country's stock markets .
The commitments came during a "recent" meeting in Fuzhou of discipline inspectors from the China Securities Regulatory Commission and Communist Party chiefs and top graft-busters from nine of the CSRC's "affiliated" bureaus, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on its official website yesterday, without specifying the bureaus.
The CCDI is the party's highest anti-graft agency.
Shanghai's benchmark index has lost more than a quarter of its value in the last few weeks. To help stabilise prices, the CSRC, which has the final say on initial public offering approvals on the mainland, said on Friday it would approve fewer applications for mainland listings.
Earlier last week, the regulator also said it would launch an investigation into suspected market manipulation. "[Any] criminals will definitely be caught," it said in its announcement.
At the Fuzhou meeting, the CSRC's party discipline inspection unit said greater effort was needed to hold the party chiefs at the regulator's branches responsible for any abuses of power on their watch.
Once one official was held accountable, all of his colleagues would be on alert, they were quoted as saying.
The officials also called for preventative measures to stop securities regulators at key posts from taking advantage of their power.
Li Zhiling, a division chief at the CSRC's department overseeing initial public offerings, was dismissed and detained by police after her spouse was found to have illegally traded shares, the regulator said late last month.
A source close to the CSRC told the last month that Li's division was regarded as a powerful unit in the CSRC because companies seeking share placements could not raise fresh capital unless they secured her unit's approval.
The source said it was not clear whether other CSRC officials would be linked to the case.
Li is the second CSRC official to be accused of discipline violations since late last year.
In December, Li Liang, chief of the CSRC's investor protection division, was suspected of "serious discipline and law violations", the regulator said in a statement.
