The China Securities Regulatory Commission is trying to root out Communist Party corruption within its ranks, even as it grapples with the twin problems of plummeting stock markets and endemic market manipulation.

Readers are already familiar (see news on 22 June) with the reasons behind the dismissal of Li Zhiling, a section chief in the CSRC stock issuance supervision department whose husband traded in shares in murky circumstances. This seems to have touched off a commission-wide hunt for the kind of corrupt Communist Party officials who pervade every governmental organisation, including regulatory authorities, in that empire.

So-called 'discipline inspectors' from the CSRC met senior members of the Communist Party and anti-corruption experts from nine of the CSRC's affiliated bureaux recently in Fuzhou, according to a Communist Party organ called the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. At this meeting the CSRC staff apparently appealed for support from the Communist Party against its agents in the CSRC and seems to have met with a favourable response.

The CSRC appears to be trying to fix its roof during a hurricane. The Shanghai stock market rose by more than 150% in the calendar year to 12 June but has now subsided by 28%. The regulator suspects foul play, especially on the part of foreign short-sellers, and is devoting considerable resources to an inquiry into the matter. It has even gone so far as to issue a touchingly naive communiqué to the effect that all market manipulators will be caught. The CSRC vets all initial public offering approvals in mainland China (not in Hong Kong) and plans to allow fewer of them through, saying on Friday that it intends to approve fewer applications for mainland listings.

Party officials embedded in regulatory departments are not the only targets of this fresh clampdown, however. Everyone at the meeting seems to have endorsed a raft of new rules to stop the regulators themselves from abusing their posisions in the manner of Li Zhiling.

Some senior CSRC officials have been found guilty of corruption in the past, especially as regards misuse of the regulator's power to licence issuers. Wang Xiaoshi went to gaol in 2005 for 13 years for telling a company (in exchange for $116,000) that wanted clearance for issuing shares the names of the people on the confidential deciding panel. Wang Yi was arrested in 2008 for taking an alleged total of $2.7 million for his part in scandals involving insider-dealing by Guangfa Securities and IPO-related skulduggery at Pacific Securities. Bribes to high-up CSRC officials are thought to be common in return for approval for the issuance of securities. China's old problems of corrupt, meddling officials and the absence of well-codified and well-enforced laws remain.