Beijing to issue new rules for regular anti-graft checks
China is drafting new regulations governing the internal supervision of the Communist Party, in a bid to set up a graft-busting mechanism which will clean up the Party's image in the eyes of ordinary people, RFA reports.
The new rules come as part of attempts at reform first proposed after the bloody suppression of mass demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in which thousands are thought to have been killed by People's Liberation Army troops. One of the key complaints of protesters then was at growing official corruption.
"The draft regulations have been issued to local authorities across the country for comments and suggestions," Li Yongzhong, a researcher studying anti-corruption mechanism with the Commission's research office, told the official Xinhua News Agency.
He said the regulations were likely to take effect later this year after being approved by the Party's Central Committee. The moves are being propelled by the Party's internal watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Organization Department of the Party Central Committee.
These two bodies set up a joint office and inspection teams in August to further scrutinize the affairs of provincial Party and government leaders, Xinhua said.
Wu Guanzheng, who heads the Commission for Discipline Inspection, vowed last year to set up an efficient and systematic anti-graft mechanism within the next few years, to ensure officials clean up their act.
The official People's Daily newspaper estimated recently that U.S. $30 billion a year disappears from state coffers in China through the actions of fraudulent officials. Another estimate by a Chinese scholar put the amount at U.S.$157 billion over the past three years.