The Communist Party of China (CPC) Friday issued a revised regulation on inspection, in a renewed effort to improve supervision and governance of its more than 89 million members.
Shifting its focus from fighting corruption and Party rule violations in the initial rounds of inspections, the amendment lifted political inspection to a more prominent place on its supervision agenda.
The revised rules clearly stipulate that "political inspection should be deepened, and inspections should mainly focus on upholding the Party leadership, improving Party building, and advancing comprehensive and strict rule of the Party."
The inspections should staunchly safeguard the authority and the centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, and ensure the CPC is always the firm and core leadership of the socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, it said.
"Political inspection is a major innovation in both theory and practice of the inspection work of the 18th CPC Central Committee," said Yang Xiaochao, member of the inspection leadership group of the CPC Central Committee.
"Incorporating requirements of political inspection into the regulation is a key point and highlight of the latest revision," Yang noted.
At a meeting on May 26, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided to amend the Party's regulation on inspection work, to reflect the latest innovative practices.
The CPC inspection regulation was first put into force on a trial basis in 2009. This is the third version of the regulation following the release of a revised version in August 2015.
The regulation made public Friday also stipulates that Party committees at both the central and provincial levels should conduct inspections on Party organizations of all localities, departments, public institutions and enterprises under their jurisdiction.
In addition, Party committees at the municipal and county levels are also required to establish special agencies to conduct inspections.
On June 21, the CPC discipline agency published the results of its 12th round of inspections into CPC organizations in provincial-level regions, central CPC and government organs, major state-owned enterprises, central financial institutions and centrally-administered universities.
This was the final round of such inspections during the term of the 18th CPC Central Committee, as the 19th CPC National Congress will be held in Beijing later this year. The 18th CPC Central Committee thus became the first in the Party's history that has successfully inspected all these entities in its term.
Such internal supervision has proven effective in exposing problems.
According to the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, more than 50 percent of investigations into centrally-administered officials were as a result of information found by discipline inspectors, since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.
The municipal- and county-level inspections should pay special attention to corruption and bad work styles which hamper the interests of the general populace or alienate Party members from the public, such as major corruption scandals committed by low-level officials or village bullies, said Yang, of the inspection leadership group of the CPC Central Committee..
"With inspections extending from the central to the county level, the comprehensive and strict rule of the Party can be expected to reach the grassroots," he said.
