On the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) recent moves to centralise power and combat corruption, SMU Associate Professor of Law and Chinese law expert Henry Gao told AFP that compared with his predecessors, CCP chief Xi Jinping is less "hesitant" about emphasising the organisation's supremacy. "You could argue that rule of law is inconsistent with the leadership of the party, because if you really want the law to be supreme, then nobody should be above the law, including the party," he said. "But the decision made it really explicit that the party is going to be in charge," he added.