China's court officials asked to discard VIP cards

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Thursday asked all court officials to discard membership cards for luxury clubs and similar locations in order to reduce the likelihood of bribery. In a notice released on Thursday, the SPC said court officials who do not have such cards or who have already discarded them should report to the disciplinary sections of their departments before July 31. All lower-level people's courts should report to the disciplinary sections of intermediate courts regarding the cards before August 10, while intermediate and high courts must report on their own officials, as well as those of subordinate courts, to their superior courts before August 20 and 30, respectively. The notice urged court officials at all levels to discard their VIP and membership cards, adding that court disciplinarians at all levels should check to ensure they are discarded. Court staff should strengthen self-discipline and accept the supervision of the Communist Party of China (CPC) organizations and the people. The disciplinary watchdog of the CPC urged staff of disciplinary and supervisory organs to discard their VIP and membership cards one month ago. The CPC recently launched a year-long campaign to clean up officials' work styles and eliminate formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.