President Xi Jinping stated on Monday that corruption is the greatest threat to the Chinese Communist Party, sending a strong message that the ruling party is determined to address a persistent issue that has become ingrained in many facets of Chinese society.
Last year, corruption probes into prominent figures, including a former chairman of China’s largest oil and gas company and a deputy central bank governor, shocked the country and heightened anxiety in an economy that is fighting to gain a stable foundation and a population that is suffering with a diminishing feeling of riches.
The list also featured prominent Chinese admiral Miao Hua, whose decline coincides with Beijing’s efforts to modernize its military and increase its combat readiness.
At the beginning of a three-day meeting of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the nation’s leading anti-graft watchdog, Xi declared that corruption is not only still widespread in China but is actually increasing.
He cautioned that the greatest danger facing our party is corruption.
The CCDI recently revealed that a record 58 tigers, or senior officials, were investigated last year, highlighting the scope of the issue.
Among those under investigation, 47 held a position at the vice-ministerial level or higher, including Gou Zhongwen, the former head of the General Administration of Sport, and Tang Renjian, the former minister of agriculture and rural affairs.
When Wang Yilin reached retirement age in 2020, he resigned as chairman of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., but even former high-ranking officials were not exempt.
Andrew Wedeman, a professor at Georgia State University, stated that the crackdown will go on.
Wedeman remarked, “I don’t see how Xi could afford to back off at this point.” Xi is still discovering pervasive corruption at the top of the party-state and the PLA twelve years after he began his mission to purge the senior echelons.
Since 2023, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in China has also been hit by a wave of purges. After seven months, Li Shangfu was fired as defense minister, and Wei Fenghe, his predecessor, was kicked out of the party for grave discipline infractions, which is another word for corruption.
According to Wedeman, it seemed that corrupt officials were also part of the pool that Xi is using to find successors.
If crooked officials are being promoted by Xi, it indicates that the party’s internal screening system is either ineffective or, worse, corrupt.
China acknowledges that classic types of corruption like receiving cash are becoming more pernicious, posing new obstacles to its anti-corruption operations.
Fan Yifei, a former deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China who was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, stated, “I would decline a businessman’s direct offer of money.”
Fan was quoted by state media as stating, “But if he gives it in the form of stocks or other assets, not directly to me but to my family, that’s a whole different matter.”
According to a program shown by the state television broadcaster on Sunday, not even the humble flies and ants in China’s enormous bureaucracy will be spared.
A primary school director who benefited from kickbacks from on-campus meals and a rural official who accepted bribes from farm project contractors were among the topics covered in the first of four episodes of Fighting Corruption for the People that aired prior to the CCDI meeting.
According to Sun Laibin, a professor at Peking University’s School of Marxism, the populace is more outraged by the corruption in their own surroundings than about the tigers far away.
He stated on the show that in order for the public to truly sense the party’s concern, the fight against corruption must reach their hearts.
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