Chapter 16 Chapter Fourteen: The Surveillance Legacy of the Discipline Inspection Commission Secretary’s Disappearance

Strengthening the supervision of the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection and avoiding the supervision power of the supervisor from becoming a new source of corruption should become a problem that must be solved in the construction of democratic politics. On November 20, 2008, the Intermediate People's Court of Changsha City, Hunan Province charged Zeng Jinchun with the crime of accepting bribes and the crime of unidentified sources of huge amounts of property. Both crimes were punished. Zeng Jinchun, transformed from a discipline inspection official to an outright corrupt element, with his special identity and greedy nature, caused a strong shock in the public mind——

From 1997 to 2006, Zeng Jinchun took advantage of his position as deputy secretary of the Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection to accept and solicit bribes totaling RMB 31.5184 million, alone or together with his wife and children, of which Zeng Jinchun alone accepted bribes of 26.394 million yuan RMB, US$42,500.In addition, Zeng Jinchun also has a huge amount of property equivalent to RMB 9.5272 million, whose legal source cannot be explained. The corruption case of the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection like Zeng Jinchun is not an isolated case.Many people interviewed by the reporter believed that in the absence of a sound supervision mechanism, in recent years, some disciplinary committee secretaries have used their privileges to seek rent and even hijack public power as a privilege to directly enter the market, turning public power into private power, changing The use of public resources for self-interest has seriously affected the image of the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission as a "Party Bao Gong".Although only a small number of disciplinary committee secretaries engage in corruption, the harm it produces is far greater than that of ordinary officials.For the secretary of the Disciplinary Committee who has "privileges", an internal and horizontal supervision mechanism should be established so that it is also within the scope of effective social supervision.

The Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection is the core leader in my country's discipline inspection agencies.In the eyes of ordinary people, the secretary of the Disciplinary Committee is a symbol of righteousness, integrity, justice, and fairness. However, the reporter's investigation found that in recent years, some local disciplinary committees have lacked supervision, and corruption cases involving corruption, corruption, and bribery by the secretary of the disciplinary committee have occurred from time to time—— According to reports, Peng Jinyong, the former Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee of Changde City, Hunan Province, and Luo Ziguang, the former Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee of Loudi City, were sentenced to 16 and 11 years in prison respectively for accepting hundreds of thousands of yuan in bribes; Jiang Zhenhua, Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection, was sentenced to 8 years and 6 months in prison by the Hefei Intermediate People's Court and confiscated 80,000 yuan of personal property for being suspected of accepting bribes and the crime of unknown sources of huge amounts of property; He was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the court on December 29, 2007...

Experts interviewed believe that if the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection, as the "leader" of the discipline inspection and supervision agency, does not crack down on corrupt officials, but takes the lead in engaging in corruption and illegal activities, the negative impact on society will have an obvious "amplification effect". First, the corruption of power supervisors has seriously damaged the image and credibility of the party and government. "As the supervisor of power, the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection is exercising supervisory power on behalf of the people and the party, and the requirements for him to be clean and honest in government should be more prominent and the standards should be higher." Professor Li Chengyan, a doctoral supervisor at the School of Government and Administration of Peking University, accepted The reporter said in an interview, "If the secretary of the discipline inspection committee also becomes a corrupt element, the impact on society will be worse than that of ordinary corrupt officials, and it will definitely cause great damage to the image and credibility of the party and the government among the people."

"The secretary of the Disciplinary Committee is an official responsible for discipline inspection, and only investigates other officials with problems. They also engage in corruption, so who will supervise other corrupt officials?" A resident of Xuanwu District in Beijing told reporters, "The secretary of the Disciplinary Committee also engages in corruption. The immediate consequence is that the public loses confidence in the government's fight against corruption." Secondly, it seriously affects the anti-corruption process and deteriorates the official ecological environment.Many interviewees believed that the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection's corruption is easy to "play the role of others" and bring down the atmosphere of the officialdom.A corrupt secretary of the Disciplinary Committee not only has no confidence in supervising others, but also easily degenerates into a protective umbrella for corrupt officials, seriously affecting the anti-corruption process.

The reporter found that in recent years, corruption has been serious in some places, and major and important cases have not been investigated, and the anti-corruption struggle cannot be deepened. One of the important reasons is that the secretary of the discipline inspection committee is corrupt.In Chenzhou City where Zeng Jinchun lives, there is Li Dalun, a greedy party secretary who plays with words, and Lei Yuanli, a deputy mayor who plays with power, money, and women. Fan Jiasheng, director of publicity, and Li Shubiao, director of the Housing Provident Fund Management Center.The reason for the emergence of this gang of corrupt officials may not be entirely attributed to Zeng Jinchun, the corrupt Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection, but he has a close relationship with Zeng Jinchun after all.

Furthermore, it seriously undermines the anti-corruption system and hinders social and economic development.The secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection is very familiar with laws and regulations, well versed in the routines and skills of handling cases, and has strong anti-investigation and anti-interrogation capabilities.Therefore, the appearance of the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the case is mostly due to accidental and accidental factors.For example, in July 2004, Wang Rui, the former deputy secretary of the party committee and secretary of the Disciplinary Committee of the Qiqihar City Public Security Bureau, was prosecuted. It was also because of a sensational gangster organization that he was found to be the "protective umbrella" of this gangster organization.

"Secretaries of the Commission for Discipline Inspection know the law and break the law, and they have caused great damage to the legalized, institutionalized, and networked anti-corruption system." Professor Gong Weibin of the National School of Administration said in an interview with reporters, "The secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection regards the power of discipline supervision as a tool for personal gain. Turning some anti-corruption measures into a magic weapon for personal wealth will lead to a deformed officialdom ecology." According to reports, in order to retaliate against those who did not listen to the "greetings", Zeng Jinchun also imposed "shuanggui" on some people who were neither party members nor officials, nor held public positions.In addition, he not only acted as a "protective umbrella for evil mines", but also used his power to charge "protection fees" for enterprises in the name of "protection by listing", which made many business leaders have no intention of production and spent their days worrying all day long.

The reporter's investigation found that the current lack of supervision of the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection has become a weakness in the supervision of party affairs and administrative law enforcement.How to strengthen the supervision of the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection and prevent the supervision power of the supervisor from becoming a new source of corruption has become a problem to be solved in the construction of democratic politics. The reporter checked the information and found that Article 6 of the "Regulations on Inner-Party Supervision of the Communist Party of China (Trial Implementation)" stipulates that party committees at all levels have the right to supervise the leadership team and members of the discipline inspection committee at the same level.Article 5 also stipulates that inner-Party supervision should be combined with extra-Party supervision.Party organizations at all levels and party members and leading cadres should consciously accept and correctly treat the supervision of the party and the people.Article 10 also stipulates that party members have the right to "report the fact that any party organization or any party member violates discipline and law, and fight against negative corruption".

"Theoretically speaking, lower levels can supervise higher levels, and the whole party can supervise the central government, and this has been written into the party constitution and regulations, but it is impossible to do so in practice." Li Chengyan believes, "According to the current situation, the supervision of the Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee is Except for the local party committee and the higher-level disciplinary committees who dare to supervise, there is no organization at the same level that can supervise. However, the higher-level disciplinary committees rarely contact the lower-level disciplinary committees, and there is information asymmetry, so it is difficult to play a supervisory role. Moreover, the higher-level disciplinary committees and local party committees There is an affiliation relationship with the lower-level discipline inspection committee, and it often happens that the superior protects the weak and is not easy to lose favor. In the party committee, the secretary of the discipline inspection committee is generally a member of the standing committee, how to supervise? Under this system, it is no accident that the secretary of the discipline inspection committee is corrupt.”

"In terms of laws and regulations, there is no effective supervision of the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection." Associate Professor Yang Zhonghong from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology told reporters, "At present, the Constitution only stipulates that the local people's congresses supervise the 'one government and two courts'. January 1, 2007 The "Supervision Law" that came into effect on 12th also evaded the supervision of the party committee and the discipline inspection committee." "In the current anti-corruption system, the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection is in a key and core position." Professor Gong Weibin said, "From the perspective of the leadership position, it is difficult for the procuratorate at the same level to effectively supervise the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection. It is even more difficult to effectively supervise the secretary of the discipline inspection committee. The status of the discipline inspection committee, the relationship with the party committee at the same level, and the supervision of the discipline inspection committee need to be carefully studied and resolved.” "It is difficult for the secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission to be supervised by the same level organs and the masses, because the Disciplinary Commission Secretary has the privilege of 'shuanggui'." A county party secretary in Yunnan Province once expressed his views frankly to reporters, "According to regulations, the Discipline Inspection Commission has the right to 'order those Those who are suspected of violating administrative discipline will explain and explain the issues involved in the investigation at the designated time and place'. But in actual operation, there is no boundary for shuanggui objects, and this is not limited to party members. That is to say, 'Shuanggui', as long as it is willing, can fall on anyone's head. Therefore, a designed 'anti-corruption weapon' is very likely to become a tool for power corruption and self-interest of some discipline inspection committee secretaries." Practice has proved that if the anti-corruption only stops at removing and punishing the secretaries of the corrupt discipline inspection committees, without reforming or improving the basic system, then no matter how many corrupt discipline inspection commission secretaries are removed, the problem will not be fundamentally solved. Experts interviewed believe that these cases of the sacking of the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection provide a model of human nature for preventing the corruption of power supervisors - without the system to check and balance power, it is destined to only follow the myth of "self-discipline".The focus should be on the link of prevention in advance, and the power of the Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee should be effectively monitored. "To solve the problem of power supervision of the Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee, we need to grasp the key to the correct exercise of power." Li Chengyan suggested, "First of all, the power of the Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee must be exercised in a standardized manner. The exercise of such organizational measures should go through certain procedures and have corresponding evidence. Secondly, the horizontal supervision and restriction at the same level must be regulated. As an anti-corruption official, whether the secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission can implement the supervision mechanism of the procuratorate from the system depends on the Institutionally implement the mechanism for news media to supervise it, as well as the supervision power and mechanism of local party committees and people's congresses." "Effective supervision of local discipline inspection commissions should be carried out in a two-pronged approach. While establishing and improving the internal supervision mechanism, we should also pay attention to external supervision. On the one hand, reduce the chance of power corruption, and on the other hand, promote the transparency, institutionalization and standardization of internal supervision. "Du Liyuan, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongsheng Law Firm, suggested in an interview with reporters, "First of all, strengthening the public opinion supervision of the masses is an important means of effective supervision of the Commission for Discipline Inspection. Our country's law only clarifies that the People's Congress has the power to supervise the government, courts and procuratorates. However, according to the relevant provisions of the Constitution, the Organization Law of the People's Congress and the Party Constitution, local discipline inspection commissions must abide by the Constitution and laws, and must Activities within the scope of the Constitution and laws. In our country, people’s congresses at all levels and their standing committees have the right to supervise the implementation of the Constitution and laws, so the people’s congresses should effectively supervise the work of local discipline inspection commissions.” "It is necessary to make the supervision and restriction of power more sufficient and effective, especially to make the power of supervision not only act after the event, but also move forward during the event. The current supervision is all post-event supervision and supervision of the results, but for The supervision of the process is the most important.” Professor Qi Shanhong, a doctoral supervisor at Nankai University, said in an interview with reporters, “In the severe situation of our country’s anti-corruption struggle, the anti-corruption department should be managed as a special agency. System reform, implement vertical management; the second is to promote horizontal supervision by public opinion. The implementation of vertical management of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission for local discipline inspection committees is to reduce interference for the anti-corruption of the secretary of the discipline inspection committee; strengthen horizontal social supervision, and incorporate supervision forces including news and public opinion into the secretary of the discipline inspection committee In the system of power supervision, the power of the Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection is to be effectively supervised." Zeng Guangyu, Deputy Secretary-General of the Tenth Beijing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, told reporters: "Because the higher-level discipline inspection commission has special resources and powers, the selection, appointment, supervision, and evaluation of the lower-level discipline inspection cadres And appointment and removal, as well as daily education are also essential links." Many interviewees believe that anti-corruption requires not only mutual restraint between powers, but also the expansion of open social supervision channels.Only by doing a good job of "outside the system" supervision such as public opinion supervision and public participatory supervision, is the effective way to reduce the corruption of the Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission and improve the anti-corruption system project.