China to streamline corruption reporting

BEIJING - The process under which local Chinese graft inspectors report their findings will be further streamlined next year in a bid to catch more corrupt officials, the Communist Party of China's (CPC) discipline watchdog said on Friday.

According to the CPC's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), local discipline inspection agencies nationwide will give reports on their work only to superior inspection agencies.

They will follow instructions from superior agencies first when investigating a corruption case.

Currently, each local discipline inspection agency is under the dual leadership of the CPC committee at the same level and the inspection agency of a superior level.

These reforms have already been carried out on a pilot basis since April in 15 cities of Hebei, Zhejiang, Henan, Guangdong and Shaanxi provinces, as well as in the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs.

A posting on the CCDI website said discipline inspectors had investigated some 22,000 corruption-linked cases during the April-July period this year, up 18.6 percent from the same period in 2013.