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Highest supervisory body of the Chinese Communist Party

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI)In English, the name of the body is sometimes translated as "Central Discipline Inspection Commission" (CDIC). is the highest supervisory organ of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCDI is under the control of the CCP Central Committee, per the principle of unified power. It is tasked with defending the party constitution, enforcing inner party regulations, coordinating anti corruption work, and safeguarding the core position of Xi Jinping in the CCP Central Committee and the party as a whole. Safeguarding the political position of Xi and the Central Committee is, officially, the CCDI's highest responsibility. Since the vast majority of officials at all levels of government are also CCP members, the commission is, in practice, the top anti corruption body in China. At its first plenary session after being elected by a CCP National Congress, the CCDI elect its secretary, deputy secretaries, secretary general and other Standing Committee members. The CCDI then reports the election results to the Central Committee, which can either approve or disapprove of the results. The CCDI Standing Committee is responsible for convening and presiding over plenary sessions of the CCDI. When the CCDI is not in session, its powers and responsibilities are delegated to the CCDI Standing Committee, which has to implement the decisions of the CCP Central Committee and the CCDI plenary sessions. It is held accountable to the CCDI plenary sessions. The secretary convenes, presides over the work and sets the agenda of the CCDI Standing Committee meetings. The current secretary is Li Xi, who was elected by the 1st Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and approved by the 20th Central Committee on 23 October 2022. The modern commission was established at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee in December 1978. Control systems had existed previously under the name "Central Control Commission" for a brief period in 1927 and again between 1955 and 1968, and under its present name from 1949 to 1955. It was disbanded during the Cultural Revolution in 1969. In 1993, the internal operations of the agency and the government's Ministry of Supervision (MOS) were merged. However, beginning with Hu Jintao's term as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2002, and especially following Xi Jinping's assumption of the party leadership in November 2012, the CCDI has undergone significant reforms to increase its autonomy.

The idea of a control system was inspired by Vladimir Lenin in The State and Revolution. Lenin argued that every communist vanguard party, at all levels, needed a system to supervise party official elections, dismissals, and performance. His writings led to the establishment of the Soviet Central Control Commission. The control system and the party structure were imported to China. The importance of discipline and supervision was emphasized since the CCP's founding. The 2nd National Congress amended the party constitution, devoting a chapter to party discipline. However, no institution was established to safeguard party norms or supervise cadre behavior. Until the establishment of the Central Control Commission (CCC) at the 5th National Congress in 1927, local party committees were responsible for supervising members. The 5th National Congress again amended the party constitution, adding a chapter on control commissions and their aims, but devoting little attention to their operations. Partly because of this, the control commissions actively participated in several party rectification campaigns during the late 1920s and early 1930s. At that time, the commissions tended to participate in political struggles, most notably the purges of Zhang Guotao and Wang Ming. The control system was reorganized as the Central Review Committee (1928–1933), the Central Party Affairs Committee (1933–1945), and the Central Control Commission (1945–1949). Despite these changes, the duties and responsibilities of the control bodies remained vague until the amendments to the party constitution at the 7th National Congress in 1945. Although it may be argued that the 1945 amendments did little to clarify the role of a control body, the party leadership expanded on the theoretical reasons for its existence. It was argued in the party constitution that the control system "was born to serve the needs of a Leninist party for its ideological and organizational consolidation. Such a role was reinforced in the Party's frequent campaigns against its real or perceived enemies in and out of the party organization." In 1949, the Central Committee established the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). It differed from its predecessors in several respects. It was responsible to the Politburo, and its local organizations were responsible for their corresponding party committees, despite the committees' authority to restrict their behavior. In reality, the CCDI was established to check all party organizations except the central leadership.

During its early years, the CCDI was not a powerful institution. Although it focused on abuses by party veterans and senior officials, the CCDI rarely appeared on record at that time as investigating (or solving) those problems. The few mentions of CCDI inspectors in the press highlighted their failures. Despite the support of Mao Zedong and the central party leadership, it was often unable to fulfill its mandate in the provinces. According to a People's Daily editorial, party inspectors "gave up the struggle and proved themselves unable to persist in  upholding the dignity of Party discipline when they encountered great obstacles." Aware of Yan'an Rectification Movement successes and CCDI failures, the party leadership used mass mobilization and ideological campaigns to tackle party corruption during the 1950s. In the wake of the Gao Gang–Rao Shushi affair, the CCDI was replaced by the CCC. Although the CCC became a powerful political force in the following years, at the 8th National Congress in 1956, its inspectors were warned about abusing their power and becoming independent of their local party committees. Its power waned during the Great Leap Forward, but the CCC, the Secretariat, and the Organization Department became the chief weapons in the aftermath of the Great Leap to combat corruption and reverse verdicts on rightists. The CCC played its new role until the Cultural Revolution, a socio political movement which lasted from 1966 until 1976, when it was affected by purges (partly due to its close ties to Peng Zhen, one of the first highly ranked officials purged during the Cultural Revolution). At the 9th National Congress in 1969, the CCC was abolished, removed from the party constitution, and replaced by special case organizations (such as the Central Case Examination Group) formed under Mao and Kang Sheng. Despite its abolition at the congress, little criticism was directed at the CCC during the Cultural Revolution; although CCC Deputy Secretary Min Yifan was criticized by the Red Guards, a revolutionary youth movement independent of the party (but inspired by Mao) during the Cultural Revolution. Most of their disapproval focused on his career on local committees, rather than the CCC. Talk of an internal party control system would not resurface until the death of Mao and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976. The CCDI was reestablished at the 11th National Congress in 1977. It had three goals: removing the social influence of the Gang of Four, implementing the leadership's cadre policy, and removing "despotic" local party secretaries, and reversing poor verdicts handed down during the Cultural Revolution. Due to the power struggle between Deng Xiaoping and Hua Guofeng, the control system was not implemented in 1977–1978. The 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee in December 1978 formed a new control system under its 1949–1955 name, with responsibilities identical to those of the CCC before its abolition. After the 3rd Plenary Session, the CCDI convened its 1st Plenary Session and elected Chen Yun as First Secretary, Deng Yingchao as Second Secretary, Hu Yaobang as Third Secretary, and Huang Kecheng as Permanent Secretary. However, the election of these people (and others) was purely symbolic; the new CCDI consisted generally of people who had never been involved in control affairs, and overwhelmingly of members considered too young to be taken seriously. In its 1st Plenary Session, the CCDI stated three overarching goals: to "protect party members' rights", to enforce and safeguard the system of collective leadership "with the division of labor by the individual", and to generally oppose the over concentration of power in one individual. It would combat corrupt tendencies in the party and handle individual complaints. Although the press and the CCDI highlighted its fight against corruption, the commission was powerless against many "local despots": leaders who ruled largely by fiat. During the early 1980s, the 11th Central Committee was forced to enact emergency measures to combat corruption. Instead of fighting corrupt officials, the CCDI's local branches focused on the rank and file. It was an organizational weapon against the "leftists" (who advanced during the Cultural Revolution or supported it) and the "rightists" (supporters of bourgeois democracy). After weakening under Zhao Ziyang, CCDI power increased in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 under the tutelage of Deng and Jiang Zemin. Despite the commission's position as the party's – and China's – leading anti corruption agency, its leaders have admitted serious deficiencies in its work. CCDI Secretary Wei Jianxing allegedly tendered his resignation "on the eve" of the 5th Plenary Session of the 15th Central Committee in 2000 to protest the commission's impotence. His successor Wu Guanzheng found himself in a similar situation, allegedly tendering his resignation in August 2005. Although neither resigned before the end of his term, they were unable to increase CCDI independence from the committees or end the Central Secretariat's interference in its activities. In late 2013, Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) and head of China's security agencies, was placed under investigation by the CCDI for abuse of power and corruption, a decision state media announced in July 2014. Zhou was the first PSC member – and the most senior ranked official – since the founding of the People's Republic of China to be tried and convicted of corruption related charges. Following his investigation, Zhou was expelled from the CCP. On 11 June 2015, Zhou was convicted of bribery, abuse of power, and the intentional disclosure of state secrets by the Intermediate Court in Tianjin. Zhou and his family members were said to have taken 129 million yuan (over $20 million) in bribes. According to scholar Xuezhi Guo, "From 1992 to 2009, China brought disciplinary sanctions against approximately two million personnel". The CCDI cited similar numbers: "[B]etween July 2003 and December 2008, the CCDI had tried and closed 852,000 cases, resulting in 881,000 officials receiving disciplinary sanctions." In 2009, the CCDI imposed disciplinary sanctions on 106,626 party members and officials; 146,517 in 2010; 142,893 in 2011; 160,718 in 2012, and 182,000 in 2013. From 2012 to October 2017, disciplinary action started against 1.4 million communist party members. As of 2014, five of the 31 CDI secretaries were women: Huang Xiaowei, Hong Qiang, Zhang Xiaolan, Ma Yongxia, and Song Airong. Of these Zhang, at age 50, was currently the youngest serving CDI provincial secretary. The CCDI underwent another round of reforms under general secretary Xi Jinping, elected in the immediate aftermath of the 18th National Congress in 2012. In 2014, the CCDI established an internal Office for the Supervision of Disciplinary System Officials. That year, the CCDI set up offices in bodies directly reporting to the central committee (such as the Organization and Propaganda Departments) and State Council bodies.

The secretary, known as the First Secretary during Chen Yun's term (1978–1987), is head of the CCDI. Elections of its secretary, deputy secretary, and secretary general are held at its 1st Plenary Session, held immediately after a national congress. Since 1978, all CCDI heads have been members of the PSC, although Wei Jianxing was a member from 1997 to 2002, but not from 1992 to 1997. The 12th National Congress required that the CCDI head serve concurrently on the PSC, but this was rescinded by Zhao Ziyang at the 13th National Congress in 1987. Although most of Zhao Ziyang's reforms were later themselves rescinded, concurrent PSC membership was not reintroduced until the 15th National Congress in 1997. The Standing Committee is the highest body when the CCDI is not convened for a plenary session. the latter is the only national level organization, with the National People's Congress and the Central Committee, which holds at least one plenary session a year. CCDI plenary sessions, which discuss its past and future work, are usually held in January. The 18th Standing Committee has 19 members, one of whom (Huang Xiaowei) is a woman. The CCDI employs about 1,000 people. Since the 1993 merger of its internal functions with the MOS, it has grown to 27 bureaus and offices. Of these, the Office for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, the Case Hearing Office, and the Office for Circuit Inspection Work are the most important. ODIS and its ten divisions are responsible for investigating breaches of party discipline and unlawful acts by party members. Of the ten divisions, four investigate cases at the vice ministerial level and above; the remaining six investigate "officials at the level of provincial governor, vice governor, chair and vice chair of provincial standing committees of the National People's Congress, chair and vice chair of provincial Political Consultative Conferences, city mayors, and deputies." In addition, there are twelve institutions which are directly subordinate to the CCDI.

Below the central level, there are several commissions for discipline inspection (CDI). The establishment of discipline commissions at the local level is decided by the upper level party committee. The Office for Circuit Inspection Work sends inspection teams throughout the country to help the local CDIs. In 2003, there were five inspection teams, and by 2013 the number had grown to twelve. In 2010, the CCDI was authorized to send inspection teams to the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Despite this, there are several weaknesses to its institutional design in the sense that certain informal aspects of CCP rule compete with formal procedures (that the CCDI and its lower level organs are tasked with supervising) for hegemony. Examples are, as outlined by Xuezhi Guo, "vague institutional positions, incrementally declining effects as time goes by, vulnerability to patron clientelism or guanxi network at the grassroots level, and the dilemma of 'open' or 'undercover' investigation". The CCDI and its inspection teams initiate ordinary and intensive inspection of party organizations at all levels and, in the eyes of many in the provinces, are a "tribunal of justice": handing down verdicts to the guilty and exonerating the innocent. Inspection teams are not empowered to initiate formal investigations, make arrests, or mete out punishments. If an inspection team gathers on wrongdoing and corruption in general, the information is passed on to either the Organization Department or the CCDI. When an investigation is completed, they need to submit a report to the Central Leading Group for Inspection Work, to the region it inspected, and the individuals who were the targets of the investigation. The report is then uploaded on the CCDI's website and made public. The regulations which govern inspection team conduct states that they must: "Learn from the reports from local party committees; Participate in party disciplinary meetings; Manage whistleblower letters, phone calls, and visits; Regarding issues of party members or officials; Organize forums to understand public opinions of local leaders; Communicate with individuals; Review relevant documents and records; Conduct surveys and evaluate the opinions of the public; Visit the local bureau or individual department; and Consult with other government departments to gain better understand[ing] of the issues."

The military has its own discipline enforcement body, known as the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Central Military Commission (CDICMC) and is modelled on the CCDI. Since 1990, the CDICMC's work has largely been carried out by the PLA's General Political Department, the military's highest political body. On 13 March 2018, as part of a broader reorganization of party and state bodies, the MOS was abolished and replaced with the National Supervisory Commission (NSC); unlike the MOS, which was under the State Council, NSC is directly responsible to the National People's Congress. The NSC is co located with the CCDI, and has effectively functioned as the state arm of the CCDI, with its first director Yang Xiaodu serving as the Deputy Secretary of the CCDI.

The CCDI (and its local affiliates) enforces the inner party supervision system. Although the system's history dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, it was not formalized until the 2004 "Internal Supervision Regulation" (ISR). The ISR reaffirmed the powers of the CCDI, institutionalized the central inspection teams, and clearly separated the party's decision making institutions from its supervisory ones. With the ISR, the CCP issued a list of member responsibilities subject to oversight by the CCDI and its local affiliates. Member supervision was not new. However, information on what was supervised (and explanations for why things were under supervision) was novel. Every party member is subject to supervision, but the ISR emphasizes that leaders would be its focus. This was probably in reaction to the fact that no institutions, except the central party leadership (including the local CDIs), had the de facto ability to supervise lower level party institutions. The ISR defines three forms of inner party supervision: top to bottom, bottom to top, and peer to peer. Of the three, bottom to top is the least institutionalized and was presented as the moral – but not institutional – responsibility of ordinary party members. The mechanism for lodging complaints against higher level party officials or proposing their dismissal was unspecified. According to Ting Gong, the main problem is that if an ordinary party member lodges a complaint or accuses an official of corruption, "there is no guarantee that personal petitions will be accommodated or even processed as they are subject to further investigation and the approval of higher level authorities". The top to bottom system requires party committees at higher levels to supervise lower level committees. According to the ISR, the central party leadership should regularly send central inspection teams to regions, state organizations, and state owned enterprises. The central inspection teams' structure was reformed by the ISR. Before it, they were ad hoc institutions in the fight against corruption. The ISR introduced formal criteria for joining a central inspection team and empowered its investigative authority. Peer to peer supervision is defined as regular "democratic life meetings" and the duty of standing committees to report their work to the party committee to whom they are responsible. The primary goal of peer to peer supervision is to strengthen party members' subjective responsibility by making them feel collectively responsible for the party as a whole. This system is supervised by the party committee and the CDI at the next higher level.

The jurisdiction of the party discipline inspection system mirrors that of the MOS, with the CCDI responsible for cases involving breaches of party discipline and state law by party members. Like the MOS, the CCDI lacks judicial authority and is limited to investigating allegations of corruption and breaches of party discipline. Since the CCDI does not have the power to prosecute, it is supposed to transfer cases (after investigation) to the Supreme People's Procuratorate or the Supreme People's Court. Despite this, its formal jurisdiction is loosely defined. The CDI's ability to begin investigations and administer party sanctions has often led to the slow transfer (or sometimes no transfer) of cases to the Supreme People's Procuratorate. According to Graham Young, the CCDI's "responsibilities deal with four types of offences: [w]ork mistakes, [p]olitical mistakes, [l]ine mistakes, [and] [c]ounter revolutionary actions". Andrew Wederman wrote that by looking at the "offences based on annual reports by provincial DICs contained in provincial yearbooks", its responsibility includes 20 types of offences; "[a]rbitrary and dictatorial exercise of power, [a]narchism, [f]actionalism, [f]avouritism, [i]nsubordination, [h]eterodoxy (such as bourgeois spiritual pollution, leftism), [p]rivilege seeking, [n]epotism and use of Party authority to advance their families, friends and relatives, [b]ureaucratism, [a]dministrative inefficiency, [c]ommandism, [h]oarding, [p]etty corruption, [f]raud, [e]mbezzlement, [t]heft, [s]muggling, [b]ribery, [i]llegal acquisition of and dealing in foreign exchange, [and] [w]asting and squandering public funds". According to Jeffrey Becker, "CDIC handbooks and regulations typically list six general types of mistakes (cuowu); political, economic, organisational, dereliction of one's duty, opposition to the party's socialist morals, and violations of integrity laws and regulations." Although the CCDI overlaps the MOS, it has more responsibilities since it is obligated to prevent breaches of party rules, norms, and other non criminal behaviour. The party constitution vaguely defines the CCDI's jurisdiction:
Resolutely implement the Party's basic line, principles, and policies  correctly exercise the powers entrusted to them by the people, be honest and upright, work hard for the people, make themselves an example, carry forward the style of hard work and plain living, forge closer ties with the masses, uphold the Party's mass line, accept criticism and supervision by the masses, oppose bureaucratism, and oppose the unhealthy trend of abusing one's power for personal gain.

For a case to be investigated, a person needs to petition the CCDI. Although the main petition office is the Complaints Office, petitions are usually sent to other offices and institutions (such as the Supreme People's Court, Supreme People's Procuratorate, the National People's Congress, and party leadership as high as the PSC) as well. Petitions may also be filed on the CCDI website, and the commission receives cases through the Office for Circuit Inspection Work (which sends inspection teams throughout the country). In a case handled by former ODIS Third Division director and Case Hearing Office director Li Huiran, a petition was sent to all department heads in the ministry employing the petitioner, several offices of the CCDI and PSC members Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, and Wei Jianxing. An investigation has eight steps: "preliminary evidence and complaint management, preliminary confirmation of disciplinary violations, approval for opening the case, investigation and evidence collection, case hearing, implementation of disciplinary sanctions, appeal by the disciplined official, and continued supervision and management of the case". The first step begins with the receipt of a petition, which is formally accepted when the CCDI has proof (or suspicion) of wrongdoing. This process depends on the position of the accused; if the person has a vice ministerial or deputy gubernatorial rank, the investigation must first be approved by the CCDI Standing Committee. If approved, the CCDI Standing Committee will request permission from the PSC for a full investigation. An investigation of a provincial party leader must be accepted by the Politburo. To investigate a member of the Politburo or the PSC, the full backing of the PSC and retired high level leaders is required. When a case is approved, the subject enters Shuanggui ("double designation") and must appear at a "designated location at a designated time." During Shuanggui, the subject is questioned about specific disciplinary violations. The length of Shuanggui is unspecified, and the subject is not protected by the state legal system. This system gives the CCDI precedence over the legal system in the investigation of party leaders. According to Chinese media, Shuanggui was instituted to prevent a subject's protection by his patron or a network (guanxi) and scholars such as Ting Gong and Connie Meaney agree that guanxi is a genuine threat to CCDI investigative teams. The suspect is then subject to "off site detention" "to prevent interference from 'local protectionism' and 'factionalism (guanxi), preserving the investigation's integrity. The subject is detained in an unspecified location under a 24 hour suicide watch by a team of six to nine "accompanying protectors" (as they are officially called), working eight hour shifts. Shuanggui does not condone corporal punishment and the accused is, in theory, respectfully treated until proven guilty. Despite this proscription of force, according to Flora Sapio it "can easily occur because all basic procedural guarantees are removed as soon as shuanggui begins". Problems with Shuanggui, such as forced confessions, have occurred with inadequately trained officials in areas controlled by local CDIs.

CDIs at every level have, as one of their most important duties, the authority to issue and interpret regulations. In recent years, the CCDI has issued several regulations on behalf of the central committee, including "Internal Supervision Regulation" in 2004; "Regulations on Inner Party Supervision", "Provisions on the CCP's Disciplinary Penalties" and "Provisions About Establishing the Responsibility System for Party Construction and Clean Government" in 2005, and "Interim Stipulations: Leading Cadres' Integrity Report" in 2006. The importance of law in the struggle against corruption has been emphasized since the early 1980s. Deng pointed out in 1980 that the anti corruption effort was a political struggle which, to be successful, must be fought in an institutional environment. At the 4th Plenary Session of the 15th CCDI in 2000, Jiang drew a similar conclusion: "The most important thing is to uphold and improve a system of institutions which can guarantee the Party's strong leadership and socialist prosperity, and make sure that the system is functioning by means of laws, regulations, policies, and education." Despite this, until the 16th National Congress, the CCP's anti corruption system was based on campaign style events rather than formal procedures (partially due to the 1940s Yan'an Rectification Movement and its legacy). The idea that campaigns – not institutions – were the best weapon against corruption predominated under Deng, and is best seen in the establishment of the Central Party Rectification Steering Committee during the 1980s. This was the CCP central leadership's preferred way to combat corruption, since its enforcement depended largely on the leadership. However, the sharp increase in corrupt activities during the 1990s led the party to change course. Under Wei Jianxing, the 15th CCDI reviewed an estimated 1,600 corruption related party regulations and documents in the run up to the 16th National Congress. Of these, an estimated 1,100 were still considered viable. During this period, it published "Plan for Building Honest Morals and Controlling Corruption from 2004 to 2007" and the six volume "Complete Regulations on Building Honest Morals and Controlling Corruption Within the Party" in an effort to institutionalize the party's anti corruption system. To formalize its procedures, the 16th CCDI Standing Committee passed regulations requiring all local CDIs to combat corruption with lawful methods. Signaling their serious intent, the CCDI, the CCP's Organization Department, the MOS, and the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission issued joint "Regulations on Honestly Conducting Business by Leaders of the State Run Enterprises" in 2005. According to CCP analyst Shao Daosheng, "The pace of institutional anti corruption [development] by the CCP has been unprecedented."