The Communist Party of China (CPC) is mulling the formulation of a behavior code for senior party officials in light of the purge brought about by President Xi’s anti-corruption drive. (Photo : REUTERS)
In light of the purge brought about by President Xi’s anti-corruption drive, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is mulling the formulation of a behavior code for senior party officials, according to a report by the Global Times. The announcement was made during the Party and World Dialogue 2015 on Tuesday.
In addition, the central leadership is now contemplating the effective management of over 2,000 provincial-level officials, nearly 200 members of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), more than 20 members of the Political Bureau of the party and the latter's seven-member Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, according to Li Junru, former vice president of the CPC Central Committee's Party School.
"Senior party officials should be monitored in accordance with party rules," he said.
Li admitted the difficulty of assigning the responsibility of assessing and investigating powerful party officials to qualified entities.
He added that the central government is busy reviewing the cases involving former top officials such as Zhou Yongkank, a former member of the Political Bureau's Standing Committee.
For Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity Building at Peking University, the enforcement of a detailed regulation to sanction erring top officials is essentially the key to the problem.
"A corrupt senior official who represents a whole government organ or a whole region could lead to landslide-style corruption, which involves a number of officials at different levels colluding with each other and engaging in graft," Zhuang explained.
From the expense of each banquet they attend to the properties in possession and appointment of close relatives, these are some of the factors that should be considered by the proposed behavior code, according to Zhuang.
Over 700 officials have been probed for graft and corruption since the 18th National Congress of the CPC.
