Checking disciplinarians

Will local anti-corruption watchdogs do more is the question on many lips after an intensive training session for officials of local disciplinary bodies concluded in Beijing recently.

To be sure, the nine-day exercise sent a strong signal that the Communist Party of China is upping the ante in the counter-corruption endeavor and expects local disciplinary committees to rein in officials indulging in financial impropriety.

Unlike the CPC Central Committee for Discipline Inspection, which has felled quite a few top-ranking local officials on corruption charges, its local counterparts have appeared embarrassingly impotent over the years.