The 5th plenary session of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission of the Chinese Communist Party opened on January 12, 2026, with Political Bureau member Ma Xingrui absent. Ma Xingrui has been absent from several high-level meetings of the CCP, sparking continuous rumors. On the eve of the disciplinary committee’s plenary session, Li Xu, a former subordinate of Ma Xingrui and the Deputy Commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, was investigated.
The 5th plenary session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CCP took place from January 12 to 14, 2026; CCP leader Xi Jinping and six other members of the Political Bureau Standing Committee attended the opening ceremony on January 12. According to official reports from the CCP, current deputy national-level officials, including a Political Bureau member, Secretary of the Central Secretariat, Vice Chairman of the Military Commission, and State Councilor, were present at the opening ceremony.
Footage from CCTV showed that among the current members of the Political Bureau, Ma Xingrui and Wang Yi were absent from the opening ceremony of the 5th plenary session of the disciplinary committee.
Official reports indicated that Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the CCP and Minister of Foreign Affairs, was on an overseas visit. On January 12, 2026, Wang Yi met with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Herath while on his way back from his visit to Africa via Sri Lanka.
Recently, Ma Xingrui has been absent from political bureau meetings and other high-level conferences multiple times. In the past two months, Ma Xingrui was not present at the CCP political bureau’s “collective study” on November 28, the Central Economic Work Conference on December 10-11, and the Political Bureau’s Democratic Life Meeting on December 25-26.
Moreover, on December 14, 2025, during the farewell ceremony for former State Councilor and Minister of Finance Wang Bingqian, Ma Xingrui did not send a wreath; and on December 26, during the farewell ceremony for former State Councilor and Deputy Chairman of the National People’s Congress, Peng Peiyun, Ma Xingrui also did not send a wreath.
A commentator known for exposing the movements of high-ranking CCP officials posted on a certain platform on December 26, claiming that “Ma Xingrui has been double-opened and disciplined. He didn’t even participate in the self-criticism session during the Democratic Life Meeting, waiting for the first ‘tiger’ of 2026.”
On the eve of the disciplinary committee’s plenary session in 2026, Li Xu, a member of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) party committee and Deputy Commander, was investigated, becoming the second central cadre to be targeted in 2026. The first ‘tiger’ of 2026 was Tian Xuebin, the former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, who was announced to be under investigation on January 5, 2026.
Born in February 1973, Li Xu initially worked in the central state organs of the CCP and later served as a member of the party committee and Deputy Chief of Staff of the 12th Division of the XPCC. In November 2017, he was transferred to serve as the Executive Deputy Minister of the Organization Department of the XPCC Party Committee; and later served as the Secretary and Political Commissar of the 9th Division of the XPCC.
Ma Xingrui took over as the Secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Committee from Chen Quanguo at the end of December 2021, concurrently serving as the First Political Commissar of the XPCC and the First Secretary of the XPCC Party Committee.
Subsequently, Li Xu was promoted to Deputy Commander of the XPCC and Deputy General Manager of the China New Construction Group Corporation in June 2022; he was then appointed as the Secretary of the Party Committee of the XPCC and concurrently served as the Secretary-General of the XPCC, as well as the Secretary of the Working Committee of the XPCC Party Committee’s Direct Organ – among other roles.
On November 30, 2025, another former subordinate and Deputy Minister-level official of Ma Xingrui, Chen Weijun, a member of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Party Committee and Executive Vice Chairman of the Autonomous Region Government, was investigated.
Ma Xingrui is a Shandong native, fellow alumnus from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) with Xi Jinping’s wife Peng Liyuan, and the first Ph.D. graduate in General Mechanics from HIT. He previously served as the Vice President of HIT; in 1996, he was transferred to become the Deputy Director of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace General Corporation (China Space Technology Research Institute). From 1999 onwards, he served in various positions within the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
After Xi Jinping took office, Ma Xingrui was promoted and trusted with key positions, serving as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Director of the National Space Administration, Director of the National Nuclear Agency, Director of the National Defense Science and Technology Industry Bureau, Deputy Secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, Secretary of Political and Legal Affairs, Secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, and Governor of Guangdong Province. In December 2021, Ma Xingrui was appointed as the Secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Committee. At the 20th National Congress of the CCP in October 2022, Ma Xingrui was promoted to a member of the Political Bureau.
The CCP authorities announced on July 1, 2025, that Chen Xiaojiang, the former Executive Deputy Minister of the United Front Work Department of the CCP, replaced Ma Xingrui as the Secretary of Xinjiang, with Ma Xingrui being “assigned another position.” However, Ma Xingrui has yet to take up a new role, triggering various rumors about the reasons, including his previous tenure in the military-industrial system and alleged corruption during his tenure in Guangdong and Xinjiang.
In recent years, amidst a major cleanup of the military-industrial system, several colleagues and subordinates who served with Ma Xingrui during his time at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation have been investigated. Additionally, following Ma Xingrui’s unexpected removal as the Secretary of the Party Committee in Xinjiang, both the Xinjiang officialdom and the Guangdong officials from Ma Xingrui’s tenure have undergone purges, with several of Ma Xingrui’s former associates being subsequently investigated.