Improving China's national supervisory system, combating corruption

Editor's note:Liu Suhua is a Doctor of Jurisprudence and an associate professor at the Political and Legal Department of the party School of the CPC central committee (National Academy of Governance). The article reflects the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Corruption is an illegal and immoral act severely punished by countries around the world. Since 2012, the central committee of the Communist party of China (CPC), with General Secretary Xi Jinping at its core, has launched a national governance campaign to crack down on corruption in order to safeguard the public's interest and the political authority of the party.

The campaign has won support and praise from Chinese people, yielded good results, and gained international recognition.

In order to prevent corruption, China improved its national supervisory system and set up the National Supervisory Commission.

The National Supervision Law was formulated to ensure the commission has supervisory authority on all government officials. In this way, institutional mechanisms and laws can be effectively applied to control corruption and safeguard the interests of the nation and its people.

Strengthening international anti-corruption cooperation

China launched its anti-corruption campaign in 2012. /VCG Photo

Corruption in the use of public power seriously hurts people's interests, causes social unfairness, disturbs public order and damages the authority of the ruling party and government.

After a number of corrupt public officials illegally amassed fortune and fled the country in recent years, China's central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group began to use judicial, diplomatic and financial means to cooperate with the international community to lessen China's asset losses and catch these officials who think they could get away with their crimes.

The group implemented international anti-corruption conventions, bilateral agreements and multilateral agreements, and made plans and concerted efforts to hunt down a number of corrupt officials who fled abroad, recover a number of assets involved in these cases, and persuade a number of defectors to return.

It brought corrupt officials to justice while contributing to the social stability of the countries they fled to. It has also played a positive role in promoting anti-corruption efforts around the world, and guided the development of international anti-corruption cooperation mechanisms.

Establishing a long-term anti-corruption mechanism

Where there is public power, there is corruption. Fighting corruption is a goal any country must always pursue in public governance.

With the aim of improving the level of national governance and bettering the governance system, the Chinese government, with the approval of the National People's Congress (NPC), has piloted the supervisory commission system in Zhejiang, Beijing, Shanxi and other provinces and cities for one year.

Given its positive social impact, the NPC voted to amend the Constitution, set up the National Supervisory Commission, clarified the functions and authorities of the commission, established a complete national supervisory system covering central and local governments, and improved the arrangement of national institutions in combating corruption.

China has established a National Supervisory Commission as part of its anti-corruption drive. /VCG Photo

The National Supervisory Commission is a political organization that highlights the party's mission of firmly safeguarding the rights and interests of the people, and harshly cracking down on corrupt officials within the party to honor the party's discipline and national law.

Corrupt party officials manage to carry out lawless acts and obtain improper benefits because they wield public power, which the people had granted them. Their acts deviate from the requirements of the CPC Constitution, run against the party's ethos and trample people's trust in them to deliver good results.

Therefore, the state power must be used to crack down on corrupt acts and give full play to the functions of the National Supervisory Commission as a political institution. Besides, in order to prevent corruption, we must stick to the principle that education and prevention are the foundation and punishment is only the remedy.

With a combination of education and punishment, the National Supervision Law can supervise the use of public power in accordance with the law, so that corrupt officials know the legal consequences of their acts. The system's design of prevention, in-process supervision and punishment of corruption not only better protects public officials while performing their duties, but also more effectively pins down corrupt officials, protects the interests of the nation and the people, and serves the goals of the Communist party of China.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)