By Jerome A. Cohen
The new regulations on discipline from the CCP's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection are fascinating and worthy of serious research. How are targets of discipline selected? Is the clause on prohibited reading merely used as an add-on in cases where other charges are brought or is it sometimes applied independently? What procedures apply and how is evidence introduced and evaluated? What Communist Party and administrative sanctions are applied in what circumstances? To what extent does the CCDI system send cases to the courts for criminal punishments? To what extent does the CCDI system influence the handling of such criminal cases by the police, the procuracy and the courts?
I believe that, under the awning of the National Supervisory Commission, certain non-Party members are also subject to these strictures if they are government officials of one kind or other. Is there anyone out there who knows and is free to tell us? It must be a matter of considerable interest to the millions who are subject to this discipline.