A national political adviser has proposed incorporating Party disciplinary interrogations into China's legal system, in a bid to prevent abusive practices such as forced confessions.

Li Wei, a standing committee member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, one of China's eight officially established consultative political parties, proposed that the Communist Party of China's (CPC) disciplinary watchdogs should hand the process of investigating job-related crimes by CPC members, or shuanggui, over to judicial organs.

Shuanggui refers to a procedure in which Party and government officials are asked to confess to wrongdoings for serious violations of Party discipline and State laws at "designated time and venue" before their cases are turned over to prosecutors.

Shuanggui, by cutting off Party members from contacts and power networks, and creating information asymmetry, has greatly strengthened corruption crackdowns during the past two decades, Li Yongzhong, deputy director at the China Discipline Inspection and Supervision Institute, told the Global Times.

Although shuanggui is used to prevent officials from colluding with others, transferring illicit money or destroying evidence, investigators still have to follow legal procedures when probing cases involving non-Party members who have colluded with others, Li Wei told the Global Times.

Li Wei said that shuanggui is not a part of established judicial procedures, but rather an intra-Party measure that restricts individual freedom prior to judicial investigation, which may give rise to coercion, resulting in forced confessions on the part of Party members.

"Only judicial organs have the right to restrict individual freedom," Li Wei said. "As both Party and non-Party members are citizens, all should be investigated and detained by judicial organs according to the law," he added.

Li Wei suggested that Party's disciplinary watchdogs should be only responsible for issues such as whether to impose Party disciplinary punishment or to revoke Party membership, with judicial organs taking full responsibility for investigating criminal offences.

However, Li Yongzhong said it is an "inopportune time" to give up shuanggui now. "When the structures of intra-Party power are clear, selection mechanisms are reformed, and the extra-Party supervision system is well established, shuanggui could be abandoned," he said.