Land cases not part of anti-graft

The inspection teams sent by China's top disciplinary watchdog to uncover local corruption cases will not accept cases on demolition and land acquisition, an official from the watchdog clarified on Tuesday in Beijing.

Zhang Jun, deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said during an online press conference on the CCDI's website that the inspectors' work is to identify whether senior officials are involved in bribery, embezzlement, trading power for profit and other personal favors.

Their other focus is to expose problems of formalism, bureaucratism, hedonism and extravagance, which are considered four forms of undesirable work styles by the CPC leadership, said Zhang.

"Cases regarding people's personal appeals, property demolition and land acquisition would not be accepted by the teams," Zhang said, noting that it would help the teams concentrate on spotting problems of the Party members, as well as make the inspection fully effective.

Residents petitioning local authorities about forced demolition of their properties have been frequently reported in the media in recent years, while many found such petitions to be ineffective.

Net users commented on the webpage saying that many demolition cases are connected to problems with officials' work or even corruption.

"The teams do not have enough labor so they can only focus on the main issues of Party personnel. If they start to handle these specific cases, the teams would be stuck with them and become a petitioning organization, which would distract much of their attention," Wang Zhanyang, a professor with the Central Institute of Socialism, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"CCDI understands deeply that demolition is a very complicated problem in the country," said Wang.

Li Danyang, a public administration scholar with Beihang University, told the Global Times that the function of the inspection teams does not yet fully live up to people's expectations.

"CCDI should make use of its authority to supervise and push local discipline watchdogs to investigate people's petitions," Li said.

The CCDI has dispatched a second batch of inspectors to a number of government organs and State-owned enterprises.

The first round of inspection, which launched in May and concluded in September, led to the investigation of Liao Shaohua, Party chief of Zunyi in Southwest China's Guizhou province, who was removed from his post on October 31, Zhang said.

When explaining the work of inspectors, Zhang said they perform background checks before starting inspection tours, and during the inspection they collect information from local discipline inspectors and anti-graft agency officers, take tips from the public, and interview retired officials and former colleagues.