China’s villages put to Communist Party loyalty test in national anti-corruption campaign

About 77,000 village officials were reprimanded in first three quarters of this year

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Official newspaper of national anti-corruption agency says inspection of village-level governments is key to resolving grass-roots issues and reinforcing governance at this level. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 10:00am, 8 Dec 2024Updated: 2:32pm, 8 Dec 2024

Tens of thousands of anti-corruption inspectors have fanned out across China to carry out the first national check on the party loyalty of cadres in the country’s half a million villages.

The announcement of the campaign came a month after the Communist Party’s graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said 77,000 village party bosses faced disciplinary action in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year increase of nearly 70 per cent.

The village is the lowest level in China’s administrative hierarchy and was added to the inspection remit of county and municipal party committees for the first time in regulations introduced in February.

In an editorial published on November 25, the China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News, the CCDI’s official newspaper, said the inspection of the village-level governments was key to resolving grass-roots issues and reinforcing governance at this level.

It said it would be “a strong guarantee” for consolidating President Xi Jinping’s poverty alleviation campaign and rural revitalisation plans.

At an inspection planning meeting a few days earlier,, CCDI chief and Politburo member Li Xi said the investigations were necessary to rectify “misconduct and corruption that occur on people’s doorsteps” and to win more public support for the party.

The top priority, Li said, was to check on the cadres’ “political loyalty” to the party, to ensure they implemented the leadership’s decisions and policies, and to find solutions to urgent problems, according to state news agency Xinhua.