The Chinese Communist Party’s various levels of party, government, military, and enterprise structures are all facing a collapse-style corruption. The explanation of this collapse-style corruption by Baidu Baike in mainland China as a sign of the end of political power has attracted attention. Some commentators believe that the current collapse-style corruption in the lower levels of the officialdom is a prelude to the countdown of the longevity of the CCP regime.
According to statistics from the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CCP, from January 1 to September 13 this year, the Commission has investigated 40 central-level cadres, including 7 at the provincial and ministerial level, 28 at the vice-provincial and vice-ministerial level, and 5 at the bureau level. In 2023, a total of 45 central-level cadres were investigated by the Commission, making it the year with the highest number of investigated central-level cadres since the 18th National Congress of the CCP in 2012.
In the past two years, with the outbreak of the Rocket Army case, high-ranking officials in the Rocket Army were cleaned out, including the former and current Central Military Commission members, State Council members, and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu. Several other senior military officials have either disappeared or been investigated, with a number of high-ranking officials in the CCP’s military-industrial system also under investigation or missing.
Collapse-style corruption is rampant in party and government systems across the country.
For example, there has been a “major earthquake” in the officialdom of Tangshan in Hebei Province in recent months. According to reports in mainland China, since April 5 this year, 11 provincial-level officials who have been investigated are all related to Tangshan. They include Li Jianzhong, Deputy Mayor of Tangshan City, Li Guifu, Deputy Secretary of the Tangshan Municipal People’s Congress and Secretary of the Qianxi County Party Committee, Guo Yanhong, former Director of the Tangshan Municipal People’s Congress, Yang Jie, Director of the Tangshan Municipal People’s Congress, Sun Gui, former Secretary of the Party Committee of Tangshan Normal College, Hao Zhijun, Deputy Mayor of Tangshan, Hou Xu, member of Tangshan Municipal Committee and Secretary of Caofeidian District Party Committee, Han Guoqiang, Deputy Director of Hebei Provincial Development and Reform Commission (former Mayor of Qian’an City under Tangshan and Secretary of the Qian’an Municipal Committee), and He Chunjun, Executive Deputy Director of the United Front Department of Hebei Provincial Committee (former Deputy Mayor of Tangshan, etc.).
Four successive propaganda department directors of the Tangshan Municipal Committee have been investigated, including the recently investigated Li Li, the predecessor of Li Li, Yang Jie, the predecessor of Yang Jie, Yu Shan, and the predecessor of Yu Shan, Guo Yanhong.
Huizhou in Guangdong Province has also witnessed a collapse-style corruption, with the recent investigation of Chen Yiwei, the former Secretary of the Huizhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. Netizens discovered that at least 7 out of 10 members of the original leadership team of the Huizhou Municipal Committee have been investigated, with a corruption rate of 70%, and three consecutive mayors of Huizhou have been investigated.
Ma Ningyu, the Mayor of Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province, was recently investigated. Guiyang has seen four consecutive mayors fall from grace, namely Li Zaiyong, Liu Wenxin, and Chen Yan. Netizens have expressed their feeling of “corruption continues from one to another.”
On April 16 this year, Qin Rupei, former Standing Committee member of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Party Committee and former Deputy Governor of the Autonomous Region, was investigated. Qin Rupei had previously served as a Standing Committee member of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee and Deputy Governor in charge of routine work. Many of the recently fallen tigers in Guizhou had close ties with Qin Rupei. Sun Zhigang, the fallen Governor and Secretary of the provincial Party committee, was Qin Rupei’s immediate supervisor. Chen Yan, the fallen Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Political Consultative Conference, was the Chairman of Gu’an Kai Investment under Qin Rupei. Li Zaiyong, the fallen Deputy Governor, was Qin Rupei’s junior in the same major at Guizhou Agricultural College and took over as Deputy Governor after him. Zhou Jiankun, the fallen Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Political Consultative Conference, took over as Secretary of the Bijie Municipal Party Committee left by Qin Rupei after he was promoted back to the province. Zhang Ping, the fallen Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, emerged from Qin Rupei’s power base in Guiyang.
Qi’an’s direct subordinates, Ma Linbo, Chairman of the Guizhou Rural Credit Cooperative, Li Zhiming, Chairman of Guizhou Bank, Xiang Yun, Chairman of Gu’an Kai Investment, and Ma Shaomin, Director of the Provincial Financial Office, have also been investigated. Pan Hai, a senior official at the main office of the Guizhou Provincial Department of Transportation, who fell from grace in September, was once Deputy Secretary of Gu’an Kai Investment under Qin Rupei and Chairman of Guizhou Construction Investment (Qiyi Construction).
According to the official introduction of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, 85 provincial-level cadres were investigated in Guizhou Province in the first half of this year, and disciplinary action was taken against 5,090 party and government officials. In the field of state-owned enterprises in the province, 533 cases involving 548 people were handled from January to May this year.
Commentator Gaoxin recently commented on the phenomenon of collapse-style corruption in various regions, noting that even the CCP’s major external propaganda media has mournfully published articles lamenting the recurrence of collapse-style corruption in many parts of China.
Interestingly, the Baidu Baike entry on “collapse-style corruption” in mainland China introduces: “Collapse-style corruption is an important form of contemporary corruption… Collapse-style corruption is an inevitable outcome of the accumulation and development of individual corruption leading to collective corruption, heralding the ultimate stage of corruption issues. The phenomenon of collapse-style corruption has been frequently seen both in ancient and modern times, and is not a unique product of any particular country or period of time; collapse-style corruption has occurred at the end of dynasties throughout history.”
Based on this, Gaoxin expressed, “It’s absolutely right! Reflecting on Guizhou reflects the whole country, the collapse-style corruption in every level of officialdom is a sign that the longevity of the communist Xi Dynasty is entering its countdown.”