Xi says public accountability unnecessary

Transparency schransmarency.

On Wednesday, the Party’s disciplinary commission (CCDI) concluded its third plenum.

According to the plenum communique, the meeting's biggest achievement was discussing Xi’s latest contribution to Party theory:

• "Xi Jinping’s Important Thought on the Party’s Self-revolution"

This describes Xi's prescription for keeping the Party in power: Continuous efforts to root out corruption and improve governance.

• The Party claims this is the "second answer" to the question of how to ensure the Party's preeminence.

The "first answer" was provided in 1945 by Mao Zedong himself: Let the people supervise government.

Get smart: The Party isn't exactly famous for using public accountability to burnish its credibility – but the concept itself had been at least nominally endorsed at the highest level.

• Xi just definitively took it off the table.

Get smarter: Even if the anti-corruption campaign continues to be successful, the lack of transparency ultimately reduces its credibility in the eyes of the public.