The top discipline watchdog of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on March 25 started a new round of inspections of officials to expose corruption nationwide.

Inspectors will be sent to the provincial-level regions of Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Fujian, Shandong, Henan, Hainan, Gansu, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC said in a statement.

The commission will also send anti-graft teams to the Ministry of Science and Technology, Fudan University and the China Oil and Foodstuffs Co., it added.

The inspection aims to uncover harmful behavior by officials, including trading power for money, abusing power, and bribery, as well as adverse work practices such as formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.

The CPC began routinely sending teams to oversee the performance of officials in 2003, and the practice was formally written into the Party's Constitution five years later.