New normal of anti-corruption campaign

Comprehensively strictly govern the Party” is one of the newly declared “Four Comprehensives” political theory of the top leader Xi Jinping. In China, strictly managing the Party is crucial for governing the country well. Strictly managing the Party means setting strict requirements for the Party’s leaders and senior officials and strictly cultivating, administrating and supervising them, and this, in effect, is the new normal for the anti-corruption campaign.

Cases involving leaders and senior officials that seriously violated the law and Party discipline have been frequently exposed since the leadership launched the massive anti-corruption campaign. But as Xi has emphasized, the corruption situation is still grim and complex, and it has not made an overwhelming victory, which is why “the clean government and anticorruption struggle is always on the road”.

This is the Party’s solemn declaration, and it is also the bugle call leading the charge of the discipline inspection and supervision organs in the fight against corruption.

All those involved in a supervisory discipline need to leave the holiday spirit behind and quickly switch to work mode.

The vast majority of discipline inspection and supervision personnel have a strong sense of responsibility, and they are conscientious in seeking to do their duty. These are valuable and essential qualities for those involved in such work and they are the foundation on which the success of the struggle against corruption is built. For, if they do not want to supervise and dare not supervise, the anti-corruption campaign will fail.

The anti-corruption campaign has now entered a new stage and faces great challenges, with some people groundlessly claiming that “the anti-corruption campaign is going too far”.

Yet for a long time, the insufficient supervision has enabled corrupt officials to abuse their power and even in some instances resulted in what are in effect “landslides” of corruption. The authorities need to hold fast to their stance of zero tolerance toward corruption, and there should be no forbidden zone in the anti-corruption campaign. No matter how senior the official’s position is, he or she will be strictly dealt with if he or she violates the law or the Party’s regulations.

Meanwhile, the Party should help cleanse itself, by improving the working style of officials. This requires officials are able to distinguish right from wrong, and officials should not give priority to the interests of themselves or their group.

Also, the comprehensive evaluation and examination system for officials should be strengthened so it improves officials’ leadership capabilities, in order to benefit the people and improve social and economic development. The Scien- tific Outlook on Development should run through the whole process of evaluation and examination work, including democratic assessment and soliciting public opinions. Meanwhile, practical working achievements should be included in the evaluation process to win public recognition.

Democracy is the key to comprehensive and accurate evaluation and examination of officials. Evaluation and examination should be centered on both the official’s ability and political integrity. Only with the constant efforts of the anti-corruption campaign can the goal of clean politics be achieved. The author is a Beijing-based scholar.