The one big unanswered question hanging over China’s plans for new state anti-graft agency
Pilot areas silent on the role of lawyers in planned supervision regime
Beijing has signalled how plans for a new anti-graft body will be rolled out across the country but has still not answered one of the biggest questions: whether detained officials will be allowed to consult a lawyer.
In a series of reports posted on the website of the Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog, three pilot areas for a planned new supervision commission detailed how they were rolling out the programme.
The new system will integrate various government anti-graft forces and cover all public servants. It is being tested in Beijing, Shanxi and Zhejiang, with anti-graft staff from the government and procuratorates transferred to the new agencies.
China to launch graft-busting super bureau next year
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s anti-graft watchdog, has long been criticised for lack of transparency when interrogating party cadres. There have been calls for the new commission, the government’s planned equivalent, to be a more transparent body.
In the reports, the new agencies in the pilot areas all said they had detained officials. In Shanxi, Guo Hai, former chairman of Shanxi Coal Import & Export Group, was among the nine officials detained in that province.
