The Constitution is the overriding charter for governance. The proposed constitutional amendment passed by the Second Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) suggests adding a new section on supervisory commissions to the Constitution, establishing the legal status of the supervisory commission as a state organ. 

The defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the CPC. To uphold Party leadership, we must strengthen Party building and exercise full and rigorous governance over the Party in order to forever preserve the Party’s advanced nature and purity. 

Since the 18th CPC National Congress held in 2012, intraparty oversight has been effectively strengthened, with all Party organizations and Party members being supervised. This required the establishment of a state supervisory system. Supervision will be applied in accordance with the law to those public servants not subject to intraparty oversight, so as to ensure that power is exercised in an institutional framework and that the power entrusted by the Party and the people is truly exercised for the benefit of the people. 

Adding a new section about the supervisory commission to the Constitution is a major top-down design of China's supervisory system. It will also provide constitutional ground for formulating the supervision law and setting up national and local supervisory commissions and serve as an important guarantee for promoting modernization of the national governance system and governance capability.