China’s ruling party to discuss amending constitution

BEIJING: China’s ruling Communist Party will meet next month to discuss amending the constitution and to talk about the ongoing fight against graft, state media said yesterday, ahead of March’s expected passing of a new anti-corruption law.

Fighting deeply ingrained graft has been a key policy plank for President Xi Jinping in his first term in office, and that battle will take on a new hue with the setting up of the National Supervision Commission as he begins his second term.

Trial work has already begun for that commission, which is likely to be formally codified in law in March at the meeting of China’s largely rubber stamp parliament.

The new body will take over from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and merge multiple anti-graft units into a single body. It will also expand the graft campaign’s purview to include employees at state-backed institutions rather than just party members.

In a short report, Xinhua news agency said the party’s politburo, one of its elite ruling bodies, had met and decided to hold two important meetings next month — one on amending the state constitution and the other specifically on fighting corruption.

Xinhua gave no details of what the constitutional amendment might entail, but Chinese legal scholars have said the country needs to amend its constitution before it can set up the new supervision commission to ensure there is a proper constitutional basis for its powers. —Reuters