Inspectors will assess how well cadres are toeing the Communist Party line as teams fan out across the country in response to President Xi Jinping’s repeated calls for political loyalty.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in an article on Sunday that inspection tours were political, rather than operational, missions, and their function was to examine whether party agencies abided by the Central Committee’s line.

Inspection tours have been given new life under Xi’s signature anti-corruption campaign and credited with unearthing evidence used in many high-level corruption cases, including the “landslide graft” in Shanxi province.

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In a separate interview, Wang Ying, deputy director of the general office of central leading group of inspection tours, said on Sunday that the tours were expected to have covered all provincial and ministry-level institutes by the 19th party congress, due in 2017.

The congress is expected to feature a major reshuffle at the top of the party and indicate who could be Xi’s successor.

The CCDI’s focus on political loyalty comes after Xi’s called on the Politburo and its seven-strong Standing Committee to align with the central leadership, a phrase analysts interpreted as referring to Xi.

“The highest political line should implement the spirit of the Central Committee and the spirit of Xi Jinping’s speeches,” the CCDI said on Sunday.

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The CCDI also stressed that the tours were not at the behest of the anti-graft watchdog but represented the Central Committee and the panels reported directly to the top.

The new emphasis on political loyalty in inspection tours echoed changes late last year to internal party rules on discipline and punishment, according to Wang Yukai, an expert on public administration with the Chinese Academy of Governance.

Institutions that were not loyal would no doubt struggle to uphold discipline and make personnel arrangements, the CCDI article said, using a rationale often used by party mouthpieces.

“Inspection tours cannot solve the problem of corruption. The inspection teams need to supervised, too. They might generate new problems with corruption,” Wang said.

“Much of the corruption is caused by the system of cadre appointments. The problem will only be solved when the system is changed.”

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