It is inspection time again for the Supreme People’s Court (SPC). Its principal websites feature a 14 April report of the Central Inspection Group (CIG) #10’s mobilization meeting to inspect the SPC’s Communist Party Group.  The same CIG is also inspecting the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP).  These inspections are part of the current (seventh ) round of routine disciplinary inspections.  The press report is relatively formulaic, with nuances that only those with high political consciousness (政治觉悟) can notice.

Senior SPC leaders (with a bureaucratic rank of deputy bureau chief and above 副局级以上干部) of the SPC and its institutions attended in person (as well as related personnel). Those in the SPC’s six circuit courts  (巡回法庭) attended by videolink. Among the attendees of the meeting were members of an SPC liaison group to the CIG. Reports on the earlier round of inspections did not mention such a s liaison group.   Chen Zhangyong (陈章永), who has almost 20 years of experience in the Party discipline system, primarily in Zhejiang, heads the inspection group.

As is usual, Chen gave a speech at the mobilization meeting, as did SPC President Zhang Jun. Zhang Jun served as a deputy secretary of the Central  Commission for Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI) from 2012-2017 and therefore has a deep understanding of the dynamics and operations of CIGs and the thinking of their members.

President Zhang Jun stated that the SPC’s Party Group fully supports the CIG’s work. He described accepting the inspection as a major political task and called for actively supporting and cooperating with the inspection group in carrying out its work. He also signalled that the work of the SPC in the service of Chinese-style modernization will continue during the inspection.

A CIG group last inspected the SPC about six years ago. Previous mobilization meetings and inspector results were previously mentioned on this blog.

As in the previous round, the CIG is inspecting the SPC for approximately two months. The inspection group has provided an email and telephone number for those wishing to provide further information.

Background on CIGs and how they operate can be found in a 2016 New York Times article (focusing on the Ministry of Public Security’s inspection) and this scholarly article by Professor Fu Hualing of the University of Hong Kong’s law faculty.  I also recommend this 2025 article by a professor in the School of Discipline Inspection and Supervision at Renmin University and her colleague, who had access to the Party disciplinary system unavailable to any foreigner.

____________________________________________

Many thanks to an anonymous peer reviewer for comments on an earlier draft of this article.