China's top anti-graft watchdog pledged on Wednesday to step up efforts to tackle misconduct and corruption affecting ordinary people's daily lives, including the regulation of rural collective resources, medical insurance funds and elderly care services.

A communique issued by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said that the battle against "grassroots corruption" will be intensified.

It noted that local authorities would be guided to effectively address key rectification tasks and livelihood issues in light of local conditions, advance rectification work at the county-level front line and enhance the grassroots supervision capacity.

The communique was adopted at the fifth plenary session of the 20th CPC CCDI, which concluded on Wednesday in Beijing.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, who is also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the session and delivered an important speech at its opening meeting on Monday.

The plenary session reviewed discipline inspection and supervision work in 2025 and assigned tasks for 2026. It adopted a work report delivered by Li Xi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CCDI.

Addressing misconduct and corruption issues affecting the people is a significant matter repeatedly emphasized by the central leadership.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, Xi has repeatedly stressed that whatever the people oppose and detest must be resolutely prevented and rectified.

In his speech at the opening of this year's annual session, he pointed out that in 2025, the CPC Central Committee intensified efforts to improve Party conduct, uphold integrity and combat corruption. In particular, efforts were made to further address misconduct and corruption issues affecting people's interests.

The communique issued on Wednesday stated that the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period is a crucial stage for laying a solid foundation and advancing all-around efforts to basically realize socialist modernization, and urged anti-graft authorities to fully grasp the requirements for confining power within the institutional cage and unswervingly strengthen institutional governance of power and law-based exercise of power.

In addition, 2026 is regarded as a pivotal year of leadership transition at grassroots levels. This process typically involves the election or appointment of new officials at various levels of government and within the Party.

In the opening speech, Xi stressed the need to appoint cadres who are truly loyal and reliable, consistent in words and deeds, and responsible in fulfilling their duties in the local leadership transition.

The communique noted the need to enforce strict political and electoral discipline, and resolutely remove "two-faced individuals" who harbor dual ambitions and are inconsistent in their words and deeds.

It urged the resolute addressing of prominent issues including inaction and a wait-and-see attitude near the local leadership transition, as well as the pursuit of quick success and engagement in "vanity projects" after the transition.

The communique also stressed strengthening the integration of punishment and prevention, advancing the strategy of ensuring that officials do not have the audacity, opportunity or desire to be corrupt, maintaining high-pressure deterrence against corruption, and adhering to drastic measures to address deep-seated problems.

It also vowed to further deepen rectification in high-risk sectors such as finance, State-owned enterprises, energy, education, associations and societies, development zones, and bidding and tendering.

In the communique, the CCDI also signaled a targeted approach to tackling "hidden corruption", targeting officials using the connections, resources or influence they accumulated while in office to seek personal gain after leaving their posts. The communique also emphasized stricter oversight of leading officials and young cadres.