How to maintain a clean government? This is expected to be one of the main topics discussed at the upcoming Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee.

At the plenary session in 2003, regular inspections were listed as one of 10 in-Party supervision measures, this time the session will discuss ways of making the inspection teams, which at the moment are temporary, more effective in the long run.

It is these teams, sent nationwide every year, that have uncovered considerable evidence of corruption, sometimes involving senior officials. A good example is Chen Liangyu, former Party leader of the Shanghai government, who was discovered to have appropriated social security funds since 2002. He was prosecuted and punished in 2008.