2017年CRI CPC undergoes historical changes in party building（在线收听）

Chinese authorities have said that the Communist Party of China achieved historical, structural, and fundamental changes in party building over the past five years.

China's discipline watchdog issued the statements at the first news conference of the Press Center of the 19th National Congress of the CPC.

CRI's Guan Chao has more.

Officials said the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core of the leadership has achieved new breakthroughs since the 18th National Congress five years ago.

While reviewing Chinese President Xi Jinping's report at the opening of the 19th National Congress of the CPC, Vice Secretary of the CPC's Central Discipline Inspection Committee, Yang Xiaodu said that as the party tightens discipline inspections, great progress has been made.

"For five years, China's discipline inspection authorities closed nearly 2.7-million leads, started over 1.5-million cases, checked more than 1.5-million violators, including 58-thousand criminal suspects handed to the judicial departments. This showcased the party's determination in handling discipline violations as well as its improved awareness in implementing rules."

The official also reviewed the CPC's efforts in cracking down "tigers and flies," a metaphor referring to corrupted high-ranking and low-ranking officials alike, saying that China has established overwhelming momentum in its anti-corruption campaign.

When asked about the next steps, the official said more actions are needed to secure further results.

"We must perfect our system so that corruption has no place to hide. We also need to urge our officials to learn lessons from problematic examples. This way, our party members and officials dare not and cannot be corrupted, and eventually resist corruption, which will bring us closer and closer to an overwhelming victory."

Yang added that the task of fighting corruption after the 19th National Congress of the CPC will inherit the spirit of the 18th National Congress, focusing on people's voices and important official positions.

Meantime, while shedding light on the establishment of a national supervisory committee scheduled for next year, Yang also spoke on the significance of supervisory body reform.

"The 19th National Congress has decided that to promote national supervisory body reform, we also need a supervisory law. This law will also consolidate intra-party supervision and national supervision. Such institutional innovation will allow us to supervise from a wider scope, with more focus and better results."

Meanwhile, Yang also noted the existence of indolence among officials, though only in small numbers.

But he also said this group of officials have been targeted as the CPC steps up its anti-corruption efforts. 

"We will make more efforts in cracking down on indolent officials by strengthening monitoring and accountability mechanisms. For those incompetent officials, we will step in and correct their negligent attitude. The most important step is to establish correct values in appointing officials and promote those clean and responsible personnel while discouraging or even punishing those who fail to perform their duties."

For CRI, I'm Guan Chao.