The Chinese Communist Party’s anti-corruption campaign seems to be backfiring as the crackdown intensifies. In the first half of this year, 74 officials at the provincial level or higher were disciplined nationwide, doubling compared to the same period last year.
According to a report from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission of the CCP on July 25, 2026, a total of 538,000 cases were investigated by disciplinary and supervisory agencies across the country in the first half of the year. This number represents a 3.3% increase from the 521,000 cases last year.
The number of cases involving officials at the provincial level or above increased by 16.3% from 43 people last year to 50 people this year, while cases at the department level increased by 18.8% from 2,335 to 2,773 compared to the same period last year.
In the first half of the year, 412,000 individuals faced disciplinary actions. Among them, 74 provincial-level or higher officials, 2,274 department-level officials, 18,000 county-level officials, 56,000 township-level officials, 56,000 general-level officials, and 280,000 individuals from rural areas, enterprises, and other sectors were disciplined.
Compared to the 420,000 people disciplined during the same period last year, the total number of disciplinary actions has slightly decreased. However, the number of disciplinary actions against mid-to-high level officials has significantly increased, with the number of provincial-level or higher officials disciplined rising from 30 to 74.
The anti-corruption campaign of the Chinese Communist Party has been criticized for becoming increasingly corrupt itself. On January 12th, CCP leader Xi Jinping, in his speech at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, refrained from reiterating the old rhetoric of “overwhelming victory in the fight against corruption and comprehensive consolidation”. Instead, he referred to the fight against corruption as a “major battle that must not be lost”.
Former Central Commission for Discipline Inspection official Wang Youqun wrote for Epoch Times questioning why, after 13 years of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, the focus is not on how to win at fighting corruption but on the notion of not being able to afford to lose. The harsh reality faced by Xi and the millions of Chinese people is that the more the CCP fights corruption, the more corrupt it becomes.
Wang Youqun suggested that if the CCP genuinely wanted to combat corruption, it should proactively establish and implement fundamental measures such as supervision of the top leadership, declaration of assets by officials, and lawful oversight of the media. These three fundamental measures should be rigorously enforced. However, the CCP is moving backward, indicating that the so-called anti-corruption campaign is unlikely to succeed.