Graft-buster appointed China’s anti-corruption body chief

BEIJING: China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament on Sunday appointed a senior graft-buster as head of the country´s controversial new anti-corruption body, though real power will remain as always with the ruling Communist Party.

President Xi Jinping has waged war on deep-rooted corruption since assuming office more than five years ago, locking up dozens of senior officials, including the fearsome domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang. Supervision Minister Yang Xiaodu, who is also a deputy head of the party´s own graft-fighting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), was elected head of the National Supervision Commission, which will have a wide remit.

All state and public-sector employees, as well as managers working for a state-backed schools, hospitals, institutes or companies, can be targeted by the new commission, regardless of whether they are a party member or not, according to the latest draft of the pending supervision law. Zhao Leji, a member of the party´s elite seven-man Standing Committee, remains head of the CCDI. That body will remain and will share many of its functions with the new commission. Yang, 64, worked in China´s financial hub Shanghai from 2001-14, coinciding with Xi´s brief job there as the city´s party chief in 2007.

Speaking to reporters earlier this month as parliament opened, Yang said the new anti-corruption body was needed to ensure holes in supervision were covered.