Two documents aiming to instill greater discipline among the Communist Party of China (CPC) were adopted on Monday.

A meeting of the Political Bureau, presided over by President Xi Jinping, passed one revised regulation on clean governance and another specifying sanctions for those who break Party rules.

The former sets high standards for leading cadres while the latter marks out the bottom line for Party organizations and more than 87 million members.

The revision upholds the principle that the Party's discipline must be stricter than the law. Tightening discipline is key to good governance.

Since the CPC started a big anti-corruption campaign after Xi took the helm in late 2012, its anti-graft watchdog has ousted corrupt officials ranging from low-level "flies" to high-ranking "tigers," as they are commonly referred to in China.

A clean environment is being created in which honest officials can operate unobstructed. The revision aims to institutionalize the mechanism that stops corruption.

In the previous version of the rules, large parts overlapped with the country's judicial law, even contradicting it in places. Among the 178 clauses in the original, more than 70 simply repeated the law.

In the amended rules, the overlapping sections were removed in order to set a boundary between the law and internal Party codes of conduct. After all, a shorter version is easier to remember and more forceful.

If the Party's discipline is stricter than the law, officials must be disciplined when they break not only the common rules applicable to ordinary citizens but also the more demanding rules applied to CPC members. If not, CPC discipline would be too lax.

Violations of rules, whether in work or private life, damage the Party's political integrity. In order to realize the Party's mission, it must be strictly governed.