In the first half of this year, the Chinese Communist Party’s disciplinary inspection agencies received over 1.75 million reports and disciplined more than 330,000 officials. Meanwhile, the recent second trial of Inner Mongolian official Li Jianping upheld the death penalty, marking another instance of an official being sentenced to death. Analysts believe that the current leader of the CCP is isolated and, in order to maintain power, a further escalation of the cleansing of officials in the political arena is likely to occur, with an estimated 20 million officials facing potential removal.
Following the Beidaihe Conference, in August, a large number of CCP officials were either ousted or sentenced.
On August 27th, former Vice Chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Political Consultative Committee, Cui Baohua, came under investigation. He had previously worked alongside Li Chuncheng, former Deputy Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, and Yang Kening, former Vice Chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Political Consultative Committee.
On August 22nd, the Intermediate People’s Court of Handan City in Hebei Province held a trial for the bribery case of Hao Hongjun, former Party Secretary and Chairman of the Dalian City Political Consultative Committee in Liaoning Province.
On August 21st, the Intermediate People’s Court of Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province held a trial for the bribery case of Qu Min, former member of the Party Committee and Vice Chairman of the Heilongjiang Provincial Political Consultative Committee.
In August, 41 officials and executives were arrested or prosecuted on charges such as bribery, including Kang Yuelin, former Party Committee Secretary of Hunan Railway Technology Vocational and Technical College, Hu Qiang, former Vice Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Committee, and Zhang Hongli, former Deputy President of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
On August 27th, the Inner Mongolia High Court upheld the death sentence for Li Jianping, former Party Secretary of the Hohhot Economic and Technological Development Zone in Inner Mongolia, rejecting his appeal.
Li Jianping, born in May 1960 in Baizhou, Hebei Province, held positions such as Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Water Affairs Bureau in Hohhot, as well as Director of the Water Conservation and Water Resources Management Bureau of the city. The charges against him include embezzlement, bribery, misappropriation of public funds, and colluding with criminal organizations, with an involved amount exceeding 3 billion yuan (approximately 420 million USD), making it the largest corruption case in the history of anti-corruption battles in Inner Mongolia. This marks another instance of an official being sentenced to death following the case of Lai Xiaomin, former Chairman of Huarong Company, in August 2020.
Du Wen, former executive director of the legal advisory office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Government, stated to the Epoch Times that the Li Jianping case is related to the political settlement within the CCP involving Liu Yunshan. This decision was made at a high level, aiming not only to remove Li Jianping but also to target the former Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Inner Mongolia, Xing Yun.
According to Du Wen, Xing Yun and Liu Yunshan grew up under the same nanny and are like brothers. Li Jianping, on the other hand, acted as Liu Yunshan’s proxy and engaged in business with Liu Yunshan’s son. He lived a luxurious lifestyle and was difficult for ordinary people to approach.
Public records indicate that in 2018, Li Jianping and several other Inner Mongolian officials including Xing Yun were arrested. In December 2019, Xing Yun was sentenced to death with reprieve for receiving a colossal bribe of 449 million yuan (around 63.05 million USD). Li Jianping, on the other hand, was implicated in corruption worth over 3 billion yuan and received the death penalty.
Du Wen pointed out that Li Jianping’s corruption amount surpassed that of Lai Xiaomin, making his death sentence unsurprising.
Moreover, on September 4th, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the CCP announced the arrests of Liu Kegong, former full-time external director of Jinneng Holdings Group Limited, Chen Demei, former Deputy General Manager of SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, Liu Runrong, former Deputy Inspector of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Land and Resources, and Wu Daqiu, former Deputy General Manager of the Guangxi Honggui Capital Business Operation Group Limited.
In July, Li Weiwei, former Deputy Director of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on Population, Resources, and Environment, Dai Daojin, former Vice Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Political Consultative Committee, and Shen Zhiding, Deputy Mayor of the Shaoyang Municipal Government in Hunan Province, were investigated for corruption and other charges.
According to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in the first half of this year, the discipline inspection and supervision organs received over 1.754 million reports and handled 971,000 clues to problems. They filed 405,000 cases, involving 41 provincial and ministerial-level officials, 2,127 bureau-level officials, 17,000 county-level officials, and 56,000 township-level officials, with a total of 332,000 individuals disciplined.
At the 20th National Congress in 2022, Xiao Pei, Deputy Secretary of the CCP’s Disciplinary Committee and Deputy Director of the National Supervision Committee, summarized the cleansing of officials since Xi Jinping took office. He mentioned that in the past decade following the 18th National Congress, a total of 207,000 officials at all levels were investigated, while since the 19th National Congress, the disciplinary and supervisory organs have investigated over 74,000 individuals for suspected corruption crimes. According to Xiao Pei, 48% of the cases occurred before the 18th National Congress, while 11% took place after the 19th National Congress. In the past five years, 80,000 party members surrendered voluntarily under pressure and specific policies. It has been jokingly said that the “organization of the CCP has the highest crime rate.”
Hu Liren, a former Shanghai entrepreneur residing in the United States, analyzed that nearly all CCP officials are corrupt, with corruption reaching its peak during the Jiang Zemin era. However, there has been a noticeable change in the anti-corruption nature since the time of Hu Jintao’s governance. “Previously, the removal of corrupt officials carried political struggles and the quantity and political implications were incomparable to now. Currently, Xi Jinping’s massive purge of corrupt officials is entirely for the purpose of political struggle – essentially a comprehensive purge of all factions other than his own.” Hu Liren stated.
Despite the large number of officials being investigated for corruption, the Xi administration continues to claim that “the fight against corruption is an ongoing process.” The question remains as to how many officials will become the focus of the CCP’s internal power struggles and face removal.
Hu Liren believes that in the process of eliminating political adversaries, Xi Jinping has surrounded himself with enemies within and outside the party, becoming increasingly isolated with no way out. Simultaneously, as the economy deteriorates, public discontent is rising.
He told the Epoch Times, “Recent rumors about Xi’s serious illness have sparked discussions among all levels of society, with many hoping for his early downfall. In such a severe situation, Xi will undoubtedly unleash a reign of terror. Referring back to the internal struggles of the Cultural Revolution, at least 20 million officials could potentially be purged in this power struggle.”
Du Wen, a former legal advisor to Hu Chunhua, understands the inner workings of the CCP’s political arena. He emphasized that what the public knows is merely the number of officials publicly caught and implicated. “In fact, the CCP has a significant issue where many officials have been arrested and detained for years. At this stage, there is no turning back. From the overall situation, it is the so-called ‘anti-corruption is an ongoing process’ and it is escalating continuously. Currently, it is unclear when this power struggle will come to an end.”