The National Bureau of Corruption Prevention of China is an organ that the Chinese Government has specially set up to take overall responsibility for the work of corruption prevention. Its major responsibilities are to organize and coordinate the national work of corruption prevention, make overall plans in this regard, formulate relevant policies, examine and direct the work, coordinate and direct the work of corruption prevention in enterprises, public institutions, social groups, intermediate agencies and other social organizations, and take charge of international cooperation and technical assistance in this regard.

Public security organs, financial institutions and other relevant departments and organizations also undertake the work of combating corruption and building a clean government within the scope of their duties and in accordance with the law.

In the work of combating corruption and building a clean government, the above organizations with different functions are independent in performing their duties and, at the same time, coordinate and collaborate with one another. The Party's commissions for discipline inspection take disciplinary measures against Party members who violate Party discipline, after making investigations and collecting evidence. For those suspected of crimes, the commissions transfer them to judicial organs. Supervisory organs of the state administer punishment to those violating government discipline, and transfer those suspected of having committed crimes to judicial organs. Public security organs, auditing organs and administrative law-enforcement organs transfer those who violate laws or Party or government discipline to judicial organs, the Party's commissions for discipline inspection, or the supervisory organs of the state, depending on the specific circumstances. The people's courts and people's procuratorates transfer to the Party's commissions for discipline inspection or the supervisory organs of the state evidence and materials related to violation of Party or government discipline found in their work.

These organs in China shoulder such important responsibilities as combating corruption and building a clean government, and safeguarding social fairness and justice. In recent years, these organs have taken strict measures to improve the requirement standards, education, management and supervision of personnel for law and discipline enforcement. To be specific, by strengthening internal management and enactment of rules, the mechanism of restraint and supervision has been improved, and personnel for law and discipline enforcement have been urged to use their power impartially and be strict with themselves. By promoting the principle of transparency in power exercise and the system of supervisors for building a clean government, the personnel for law and discipline enforcement have been encouraged to foster the sense of conscientious acceptance of supervision from all quarters, so as to constantly improve their capabilities and levels in law and discipline enforcement, thus providing the organizational guarantee for China's endeavor to combat corruption and build a clean government.

III. Legal Framework for Combating Corruption And Building a Clean Government

China adheres to the rule of law as a fundamental principle, attaches importance to the regulating and safeguarding laws and regulations, and continuously promotes legalization and standardization in the fight against corruption and the building of a clean government. Based on the Constitution of China, a series of laws and regulations have been enacted for combating corruption and building a clean government, and based on the Constitution of the CPC, a series of intra-Party rules and regulations have been worked out, thus gradually establishing a legal framework for combating corruption and building a clean government with scientific contents, rigorous procedures, well-matched regulations and effective administration.

In order to ensure that leading cadres work in a clean and honest way, the CPC has issued a series of codes of conduct and ethical rules for Party members who hold leading positions, and is building and improving a system to prevent conflicts of interest. The Guidelines of the Communist Party of China for Party-Member Leading Cadres to Perform Official Duties With Integrity, released for trial implementation in 1997 and for implementation after revision in 2010, clearly prohibit Party-member leading cadres engaging in profit-making activities and seeking illegitimate gains by taking advantage of their positions and power in violation of the established rules. The Guidelines have provided relatively comprehensive regulations on Party-member leading cadres in performing their official duties with integrity under the conditions of the socialist market economy, and have thus become the basic intra-Party rules regulating the behavior of Party-member leading cadres. In view of the new situation and problems arising in power-for-money cases, the CPC promulgated the Regulations of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China on the Strict Prohibition of Seeking Illegitimate Gains by Misuse of Office in 2007, specifying methods of handling eight types of misconduct of Party-member cadres, including abuse of power for personal gain, which might appear during economic and social interactions. The Regulations on the Executives of State-Owned Enterprises for Performing Management Duties With Integrity (Trial) released in 2009 clearly prohibits leading officials of state-owned enterprises to seek profit through misuse of office for either themselves or any related parties, undermine the interests of the enterprises. To regulate leading cadres' performance of official duties with integrity, a number of regulations have been promulgated, including the Regulations on Implementing the System of Registration for Gifts Received in Domestic Social Activities by Functionaries of Party and State Organs, which clearly demand that the functionaries of Party and state organs must not accept any gifts or grants that might influence their impartial performance of official duties; the Regulations on Leading Cadres' Report of Relevant Personal Matters, which requires leading cadres to honestly report their incomes, housing and investment owned or made either by themselves or together with their spouses and children living with them, as well as the employment status of their spouses and children; and the Interim Regulations on Strengthening Management of State Functionaries Whose Spouses and Children Have Emigrated Abroad. These regulations play an important role in safeguarding the national interests and in the management of Party members and state functionaries in accordance with the law, as well as in enhancing the sense of leading cadres in performing their official duties with integrity.

To ensure the proper exercise of public power, China has enacted a series of laws and regulations to strengthen restraint and supervision over the exercise of power by leading cadres. The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Supervision of Standing Committees of People's Congresses at All Levels enacted in 2007 strengthened the supervisory role of those committees in the form of law over the administrative, judicial and procuratorial powers of the people's governments, people's courts and people's procuratorates at corresponding levels. Also enacted are the Law of the People's Republic of China on Administrative Supervision, Audit Law of the People's Republic of China, Administrative Reconsideration Law of the People's Republic of China, Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China to establish the systems of administrative supervision, audit supervision, administrative reconsideration and administrative procedure to strengthen supervision over the administrative organs and their staff. The CPC Central Committee formulated the Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Intra-Party Supervision (Trial), Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Inspection Work (Trial), Interim Measures on Conducting Admonition Talks and Written Inquiries With Party-Member Leading Cadres, and Interim Regulations on Report by Party-Member Leading Cadres on Their Work and Integrity, institutionalizing and improving various aspects of intra-Party supervision.

To crack down on corruption in line with law and discipline, China has been enacting and continuously improving substantive laws and regulations that punish violations of law and discipline, including criminal punishment, Party discipline and administrative discipline. In the case of criminal punishment, by formulating and revising the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the liabilities of corruption-related crimes, such as embezzlement, bribery, dereliction of duty, holding a huge amount of property with an unidentified source, have been defined. The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate have worked out relevant judicial interpretations for the law, making them an important legal basis for punishing crimes of corruption. In the case of Party discipline, the CPC promulgated the Regulations on Disciplinary Sanctions of the Communist Party of China and supporting provisions, which clearly defines conducts of Party members that go against the Party's stipulations for clean government and self-discipline, embezzlement and bribery, as well as acts in violation of financial and economic discipline, and prescribe five measures for enforcing Party discipline: explicit warning, stern warning, removal from post within the Party, probation within the Party and expulsion from the Party. In the case of administrative discipline, the state has promulgated the Regulations on the Punishment of Civil Servants in Administrative Organs, which specifies the principles, power limit, the types of misconduct and the punishment standards, including explicit warning, recording of demerit, recording of major demerit, demotion, dismissal from post and discharge from office.

China attaches great importance to enacting and improving procedural laws to guarantee the enforcement of the aforementioned substantive laws and regulations. The Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, Criminal Procedure of the People's Procuratorates and Measures of Supervisory Organs for the Investigation and Handling of Administrative Disciplinary Cases by the state legislature, judicial authorities and relevant organs, as well as the regulations enacted by the CPC, including the Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Inspection Work of Disciplinary Inspection Organs, provide a legal basis for the acceptance, investigation, trial and appeal work in respect of criminal and discipline-breaching cases, and have established systems of witness and reporter protection, case transfer and coordination, as well as the system of the protection of the rights of the defendants and those being sanctioned.

In addition, China has enacted a series of laws and regulations closely related to corruption prevention. The Administrative License Law of the People's Republic of China regulates the establishment and implementation of administrative licenses, and guarantees and supervises the effective administration of administrative organs. The Civil Servant Law of the People's Republic of China regulates the management of civil servants and strengthens supervision over civil servants, so as to make them diligent and honest in performing their official duties. The Government Procurement Law of the People's Republic of China, Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China and Bidding Law of the People's Republic of China regulate administrative discretion and give play to the market's fundamental role in allocation of resources so as to effectively prevent corruption. The Judges Law of the People's Republic of China, Procurators Law of the People's Republic of China and People's Police Law of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulate the qualifications, administration and supervision of judicial officers, and fortify the requirement of law enforcement with integrity. In accordance with the Constitution and state laws, the various localities and departments have also enacted and issued their own local and departmental regulations to combat corruption, thereby improving the legal framework for combating corruption and building a clean government in China.

To further develop and improve the legal framework for combating corruption and building a clean government, China will attach greater importance to the implementation of laws and regulations, while enacting new laws and regulations and amending existing ones in this regard in accordance with the changing situations in the future.

IV. Power Restraint and Supervisory System

On the principles of reasonable structure, scientific distribution, rigorous procedures and effective restraint, China is gradually establishing a sound power structure and enforcement mechanism featuring both restraint and coordination among decision-making power, executive power and supervisory power to promote procedural power exercise featuring transparency and strengthen restraint and supervision of power exercise. Now, a supervisory system with Chinese characteristics has been established, composed of intra-Party supervision in the CPC, supervision by the National People's Congress and the local people's congresses (NPCs), supervision within the governments, and democratic supervision by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee and local people's political consultative conferences (CPPCCs), judicial supervision, supervision by the general public and supervision by public opinion. These relatively independent supervision mechanisms collaborate closely with one another to form an integrated force.

The intra-Party supervision of the CPC refers to supervision over leading organs of the CPC at all levels and leading cadres, especially principal leaders of leading bodies at all levels, by the CPC organizations at all levels and all Party members in accordance with the Party Constitution and other intra-Party regulations, as well as state laws. The CPC has been unremittingly exploring new measures and methods to enhance intra-Party supervision, and has further improved the 10 systems of intra-Party supervision, including those of collective leadership with individual responsibility in line with division of work, notification and report on important matters, democratic meetings of leading Party organizations, as well as question and inquiry. The Central Committee of the CPC and Party committees at the provincial level have all established inspection bodies to inspect and supervise leading organs of the subordinate Party organizations and their members with respect to the implementation of the Party's line, principles, policies, resolutions and decisions, as well as the implementation of the responsibility system in improving the Party's style of work, upholding integrity and combating corruption and their own efforts in being honest and diligent in performing their official duties. The CPC discipline inspection organizations provide unified leadership to their dispatched units to various organizations to strengthen supervision over the principal cadres of leading bodies of these organizations. Great efforts have been made to develop intra-Party democracy to create advantageous conditions for strengthening intra-Party supervision. Efforts have been made to improve the system of Party congresses so as to bring into better play the role of plenary sessions of the Party committees in making decisions on important matters, and implement and improve the system of the standing committees reporting their work to the plenary sessions of the Party committees regularly and receiving their supervision. Efforts have been made to reform and improve the intra-Party electoral system, define the scope and proportion of competitive recommendation of candidates and competitive election, and gradually expand the scope of direct election for members of leading bodies of grass-roots Party organizations. The Regulations of the Communist Party of China on Protecting the Rights of Party Members has been promulgated for implementation, and it has specified the procedure for Party members to exercise their rights as well as their rights to participate in the intra-Party supervision.

Supervision by the NPCs at all levels refers to supervision over state administrative organs and judicial organs as well as the enforcement of laws by state power organs on behalf of the state and people. The Constitution stipulates that all power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people. The National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at various levels are the organs through which the people exercise state power. All administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of the state are created by the people's congresses for which they are responsible and by which they are supervised. The people's congresses exercise various functions and powers of supervision conferred by law, and enhance supervision over the governments, courts and procuratorates as well as their staff by means of question, inquiry, law-enforcement inspection, hearing and review of working reports and budget examination to promote administration according to the law and judicial justice, and prevent and curb all corrupt phenomena.

Internal supervision of governments refers to hierarchical supervision and supervision by specific inspection and audit organs. The hierarchical supervision means supervision by governments and governmental departments at higher levels over those at lower levels, by governments over their various departments and by chief executives over their subordinates. The supervisory organs perform in full their statutory functions and responsibilities, conduct inspections on law enforcement, clean government and government efficiency, conduct supervision over the supervised bodies in their exercise of functions and powers, performance of duties as well as diligent and honest governance in accordance with the law. Auditing organs, in accordance with the law, exercise supervision over the implementation of budgets, final accounts and other fiscal incomes and payouts of the government. These forms of supervision play an important role in regulating administrative law enforcement, promoting administration in accordance with law and building a government under the rule of law.

Supervision by the CPPCCs at all levels is a form of supervision featuring Chinese characteristics. The CPPCC is an important organ of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC. The CPPCCs conduct supervision over the implementation of the Constitution, state laws and regulations, important principles and policies, and performance of duties and observation of law and discipline by state organs and state functionaries by means of convening meetings, submitting motions, organizing CPPCC committee members on inspection tours and holding democratic appraisals. Party committees of the CPC and people's governments at all levels all solicit opinions and suggestions from the CPPCCs at corresponding levels and other democratic parties before making crucial decisions and enacting important regulations.

Judicial supervision includes supervision by people's courts and people's procuratorates. Supervision by people's courts refers to supervision over the legality and fairness of the trials of people's courts conducted by the higher-level people's courts on lower-level people's courts and by the Supreme People's Court on all people's courts across the country. People's courts also monitor the legality of specific administrative actions of the governments by way of reviewing administrative cases. Supervision by people's procuratorates refers to legal supervision over litigation activities and misconduct of state functionaries. People's procuratorates exercise full-scale supervision over litigation activities in the case registration, investigation, trial, execution of penalties and management of inmates, and exercise supervision over state functionaries by way of investigating such duty-related crimes as embezzlement, bribery, dereliction of duty and infringement of others' rights.

The Constitution endows citizens with the rights to criticize, advise, appeal, lodge lawsuit against or impeach state organs and state functionaries. In China, the channel is unimpeded for citizens to be involved in the combat against corruption by means of impeaching and lodging lawsuit. The governments at all levels in China have set up special organs to handle letters and calls of complaints as well as opinions, suggestions and accusations from the people. Discipline inspection organs of the CPC at all levels, state procuratorial organs, government supervisory organs and audit organs have all established the offence reporting system, opened up offence reporting hotlines and set up offence reporting websites to take reports of misconduct and complaints from the people. The relevant departments, according to laws and discipline, investigate or transfer the clues of reported cases to departments concerned. The state attaches great importance to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the informants while encouraging people to report on cases of corruption. Clear stipulations on protecting informants are provided in the Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Administrative Supervisory Law and intra-Party regulations of the CPC, ruling that the information about the informants must be kept confidential; disclosure of an informant's identification is strictly banned; and punishment will be meted to anyone who disclose an informant's identification and conditions and/or the reporting materials provided by the informant to the reported department or person, and anyone who retaliates on the informant.