China upgrades anti-corruption regulation
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China released an amended anti-corruption regulation on Wednesday in which it sets out unprecedented penalties that include imposing punishments for corrupt Party officials, even if they have left their posts or retired.
The amended regulation, the latest move of the Communist Party of China(CPC) to battle corruption, was jointly implemented by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China's cabinet.
Based on a version that took effect in 1998, the amended regulation adds more articles detailing punishments for corrupt officials. It has expanded from 17 articles to 32 articles. Those newly added articles were mainly dedicated to detail the supervisory instructions and liabilities by imbedding provisions from various other regulations in recent years. For example, previously, to punish a retired official was something that was rarely heard of in China.
One of the notable changes in the past decade was the popular use of the Internet, which opened up a new channel for the public to supervise officials, said professor Wang Yukai with the Chinese Academy of Governance.
The public is able to report more corruption cases through the Internet and by implementing the new regulation, and corrupt officials will have to spend a lifetime constantly 'watching their back,' analysts say.
The amended regulation underlines CPC officials' responsibility in promoting transparency when exercising their power and stresses mutual supervision among officials who respectively exercise the power of decision-making, enforcement and supervision.
In addition, different punishments were specified for the collective leading organizations and individual leaders in the amended version.
In article 18 of the amended regulation, the public is asked to supervise CPC officials, despite no specifications being mentioned in how they might participate. Law enforcement and strengthened supervision from the public and media are the key to fighting corruption, professor Wang added.
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