New Communist Party conduct rules to keep top cadres – and their families – in line
More than 160 detailed rules aim to ward off plague of corruption among senior ranks
The Communist Party will release a detailed set of rules governing the conduct of cadres, extending even into family life, amid a wider push to cleanse the upper ranks of sometimes overly cosy ties to lucrative businesses.
The official announcement came a day after the party wrapped up its sixth plenum in Beijing, which saw the status of party general secretary and President Xi Jinping elevated to the “core” of the leadership.
The party has adopted two sets of regulations covering senior cadres’ conduct, one dealing with political life and another addressing in-party supervision.
[Members] must strictly educate and regulate their relatives and assistants
Officials revealed on Friday that the first, more important set of guidelines would comprise more than 160 rules. Qi Yu, deputy director of the Central Organisation Department, told a press briefing that members, especially senior cadres, must maintain family discipline.
“They must strictly educate and regulate their relatives and assistants,” Qi said. “They must strictly implement the internal declaration [of assets] system.”
The regulations have yet to be made public and no date for their release was given, but they appear aimed at tackling corruption that fans out from senior officials into their family and associates.
A stream of revelations describing such networks in recent years has embarrassed the party and threatened to undermine its legitimacy. Prominent cases include former Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai, whose wife took bribes and was involved in the murder of a Briton, and former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, whose son took bribes and ran an illegal business. All four individuals have been jailed.