Leaders call for broader oversight

Two senior leaders have called for extending the Communist Party of China’s strict governance and self-supervision to the grassroots level.

Wang Qishan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said that discipline inspection — an effective measure to tighten supervision within the Party — should be further expanded to the grassroots level.

“We’re at a historic moment, very much closer to the great rejuvenation of the country. The biggest challenge the Party faces is placing power under effective supervision,” he said at a seminar in Hunan province, according to a news release on the commission’s website on Tuesday.

Wang, who chaired the seminar, made a three-day inspection of the province from Sunday to Tuesday.

After the new Party leadership was elected in late 2012, China launched a massive campaign to fight corruption and extravagance. Wang said discipline inspections, in which inspectors from the central level have been sent across the country, are effective in tightening supervision within the Party.

Commission data show that in the past five years, central inspectors have carried out 12 rounds of inspections of 277 Party organizations and units. Tips from those inspections have played an important role in 60 percent of the probes of senior officials since late 2012, Wang said.

Wang said such practices should be further promoted, and local Party authorities should follow the commission’s lead.

Liu Yunshan, another member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, also stressed efforts to integrate Party building at the grassroots level, urging members to achieve more ahead of the upcoming 19th CPC National Congress.

Liu asked Party members to serve the public, solve difficulties, explore targeted poverty eradication and set an example for others.

Liu made the remarks during a two-day inspection tour in Hebei province that concluded on Monday. He visited Saihanba forest farm and a village in Chengde, where he acknowledged the achievements of Hebei’s economic and social development and Party building.

Saihanba is a vast forest covering nearly 75,000 hectares. It was barren land 55 years ago, but decades of hard work turned it into an important ecological shield for Beijing and Tianjin.

“Generations of workers have not only created the miracle of turning barren land into a forest but also a precious spiritual fortune, the Saihanba spirit, which should be learned and carried forward,” Liu said.