China to expand pilot program nationwide to fight corruption

China is making intensive preparation to expand a pilot program to build a unified supervision system to fight corruption on a nationwide basis, said Tuo Zhen, spokesman for the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, on Tuesday.

Tuo made the comment at a news conference in response to a reporter's question about establishing the national supervision system.

Expanding such a supervision system nationwide will strengthen and unify the leadership of the Party for anti-corruption, he said.

The purpose is to build "a centralized, unified, authoritative and efficient national supervision system" to supervise all government employees with public power, he said.

"The duty of the supervision commission is supervision, investigation and case handling," Tuo said.

Since last November, Beijing and North China's Shanxi province and East China's Zhejiang province have carried out pilot programs.

The three localities set up three-levels of supervision commissions: provincial, city and county levels and have achieved concrete results, Tuo said.

"Under the leadership of the Party committee, the discipline inspection commission and the supervision commission will work under the same roof and share resources and personnel," he said.

"This fully demonstrates the leadership of the Party and also the unity between intro-Party supervision and state supervision, between discipline inspection of the party and the supervision of the State, and between governing the Party according to discipline and governing the country according to law," he said.