Surprise choice for China’s new anti-graft watchdog signals Communist Party’s authority over the state
Yang’s boss had been expected to be given the job but appointment of deputy points to body’s subservience to the party, observers say
The Communist Party’s second-ranking graft-buster was appointed head of the country’s new sweeping anti-corruption body on Sunday – a surprise move that effectively asserts the party’s ultimate authority above the powerful state agency.
Yang Xiaodu, a deputy chief of the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, was elected director of the National Supervisory Commission in a largely ceremonial vote by the party-controlled legislature.
The controversial new body will extend the powers of the party’s internal disciplinary watchdog to oversee a vast number of state and public-sector employees, including managers of state-run schools, hospitals, media organisations and companies – even if they are not party members.
Yang, 64, worked with President Xi Jinping in Shanghai during Xi’s brief stint as the city’s party boss over a decade ago. He had been a deputy chief of the CCDI since 2014.
His appointment came as a surprise to many, who, based on lower-level precedents over the last year, had expected the post to go to Zhao Leji, Yang’s boss at the CCDI. All provincial and municipal supervision commissions are headed by the top party graft-buster of their regions.
