REFORM OR TRANSFORM: THE RISE OF CHINA’S NATIONAL SUPERVISION SYSTEM

Abstract

China’s 2018 constitutional adoption of the National Supervision Commission marked a watershed in the country’s supervision system and anti-corruption work. This article seeks to investigate the power dynamics between the state machinery and the Chinese Communist Party as the newly supervisory power has come into being. It delves into the National Supervision Commission’s origins, mandate, structure, and potential impacts on China’s political sphere. It suggests that the emergence of the National Supervision Commission is a testament to the consolidation of the Chinese Communist Party control, potentially contradicting earlier attempts to separate party and state functions. This institutional novelty represents a paradigm change. The article proposes a nuanced understanding of the National Supervision Commission, considering both its potential to strengthen party authority and its bifurcated relationship with other state bodies.