The top discipline body of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is drawing a proposal to enhance its fight against corruption.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has organized a group of experts to draft a proposal to prevent and punish corruptions, officials revealed, according to Beijing News on Tuesday.

The proposal, which has been under discussion for more than a year, aims to clarify the functions of powerful departments and supervision departments, introduce more democracy to the Party and improve the education of Party members, said Li Yongzhong, an eminent anti-corruption scholar, who is also the director of the commission's research office.

It is reported that from 1998 to 2002, 846,000 CPC members were disciplined and 137,700 expelled, of which 28,996 were officials at county level, 2,422 at bureau level and 98 at provincial level, a big surge from previous years.

"The surge in corruption cases reflects that the Chinese authorities do not tolerate corruption. Of course it also shows the system has major loopholes," Li was quoted by Beijing News.

One of the major points of the new proposal is to improve prevention and supervision, Li said.

Wu Guanzheng, secretary of the commission and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC, has urged the Party to establish an anti-corruption system.

Wu said that the success of the fight against corruption lies in forming a legal and structural system, not just holding a single campaign.

Those who used to be off-limits or at least appeared to be so, such as provincial-level officials, are increasingly becoming fair game.

Over the past decade, some 16-17 provincial leaders "fell from the horse," Li said in a previous interview with China Daily.

The penalties have also become harsher, revealed Li. Of the 13 cases made public last year, one received the death penalty, two had their death sentences suspended, two were sentenced to life imprisonment, and two others received prison terms of longer than 10 years.

Li says in some places it has become routine for a corrupt official to first send their spouse and child abroad, followed by a massive outflow of illegal funds.

Corrupt earnings continue to account for a significant proportion of the billions of dollars of illegal capital fleeing from China every year.

At a recent national conference on reining in runaway corrupt suspects, procurators vowed to intensify their efforts in the fight against corrupt suspects, especially those corrupt officials who have fled abroad.