China's top antigraft commission to meet

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will convene a plenary meeting in January. The decision was revealed in a statement released on Monday after a meeting of the CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau. "Corruption is still commonplace, and hotbeds of corruption still exist. The anticorruption situation remains difficult and complicated," said the statement. Praising this year's victories against the corrupt and decadent, the statement insists that, in the long term, the entire Party must work against corruption. The statement stressed that combating corruption demands effort from the entire Party, and each Party organization must shoulder their responsibilities. According to the statement, groups and individuals who do not fulfill their obligations will be punished and made examples of to alert Party members and officials. Disciplines in organization, finance, work and life must be strictly obeyed, and questionable behavior must be spotted and corrected as early as possible, it said. Also at the meeting, a revised regulation on selecting and appointing Party and government officials was approved, with more stipulations on the management of the Party and officials. The 2002 regulation has played a key role in preventing and rectifying improper selection and appointment of officials, the statement said. According to the revised regulation, leading Party organizations should strengthen supervision over official selections, and democratic recommendation procedures should be improved and upheld. The regulation also made stipulations on the review of official performance, open selection based on fair competition and stricter procedure for exceptional personnel promotion. The CCDI urged Party committees at all levels to map out a scientific, comprehensive, effective and simplified personnel selection system in accordance with the new rules.