Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the 6th plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) in Beijing, Jan 12, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

THE POLITICAL BUREAU OF the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China passed a regulation on Tuesday, according to which Party officials that fail in their duties will be held accountable. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

The regulation echoes a bulletin issued after a plenum of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party's top anti-graft watchdog, earlier this year. The bulletin said that those who fail in their duty should be held accountable.

Actually, months before this regulation was passed, leaders and related departments had already been soliciting opinions at conferences to ensure the regulation will meet the demands of the anti-graft campaign.

Although the full text of the regulation has not been published yet, we can get some clues from the news releases from Party meetings in the past few weeks.

For example, the regulation will be mainly targeted at various levels of Party organizations, as well as their leading officials. In case of any wrongdoings, not only the officials, but also the organizations will be answerable, and the disciplinary committees that fail to supervise will pay for their misdeeds, too.

The defined misdeeds include not only corruption, but also political misdeeds such as failure to insist on the Party's leadership in certain activities. More importantly, the regulation targets problems, which means whoever causes serious negative results will be held accountable.

A news release from the political bureau's meeting calls the new regulation a powerful tool for strengthening governance within the Party itself, as it will enable the top leadership to better lead the whole Party.

That is the purpose of the new regulation. Just as the meeting emphasized, the new regulation will strengthen the Party under the leadership of the central committee and ensure that orders go smoothly from top to bottom. This will consolidate the Party's unity.