The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is set to hold its Third Plenary Session in July and has been ramping up its anti-corruption campaign in recent times. Many officials who have faced trials earlier were found to have embezzled amounts exceeding billions of yuan, sparking public attention. A former official from Inner Mongolia revealed that the CCP’s anti-corruption efforts are based on a quota for confiscating illicit funds. Last year, the directive from the top leadership set the annual quota at 10 billion yuan, a target which Inner Mongolia met within three months.
In a span of five days, three high-ranking officials were targeted in the anti-corruption crackdown by the CCP. On May 16, the former Vice President of the Agricultural Bank of China, Lou Wenlong, was under investigation; on May 18, Tang Renjian, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, was taken down; and on May 20, Wang Hao, Vice Chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), was officially announced to have fallen from grace. The state-run Xinhua News Agency claimed that this indicates that the “anti-corruption efforts remain unwavering and strict.”
According to the data from the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in less than half a year since 2024, 26 middle-ranking officials have been investigated. In 2023, a total of 47 middle-ranking officials were successively investigated.
The official figures released by the CCP on the corrupt officials who have fallen from grace often involve embezzlement amounts exceeding billions of yuan. According to preliminary statistics by Dajiyuan, from January to April of this year, at least ten corrupt officials associated with the CCP, including three from the financial system, two from the tobacco system, one from the National People’s Congress, two from the CPPCC, and two from state-owned enterprises, were sentenced.
Some of these corrupt officials, involving billion-yuan embezzlements, include: He Zehua, former Deputy Director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, who took bribes totaling 943 million yuan; Fan Yifei, former Vice President of the People’s Bank of China, involved in 386 million yuan bribery; Gu Bo, Deputy General Manager of Yunnan China Tobacco Industrial Corporation, taking bribes of 354 million yuan; Zhang Xijun, former Deputy Director of the Qingdao Municipal People’s Congress in Shandong Province, involved in 317 million yuan bribery; Tian Huiyu, former President of China Merchants Bank, embezzling 210 million yuan; Sun Shutao, former Vice Chairman of the Shandong Provincial CPPCC, received bribes of 129 million yuan; Liu Liangge, former Chairman of China Bank, accepted 121 million yuan in bribes; Gao Weidong, former Chairman of Maotai Group, involved in 110 million yuan bribery, among others.
In 2021, Lai Xiaomin, former Chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co., who was sentenced to death, was found implicated in embezzlement amounting to over 1.788 billion yuan, with 104 million yuan still pending collection; additionally, misappropriation and misappropriation of public funds from the unit totaled over 25.13 million yuan. Authorities stated that the proceeds obtained through Lai’s bribery and their interest will be seized and turned over to the national treasury, with outstanding amounts continuing to be pursued.
In an interview with Dajiyuan on May 22, Du Wen, former Chief Executive of the Legal Affairs Office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Government, currently residing in Europe, stated that Xi Jinping has been engaged in anti-corruption efforts for over a decade, yet in recent years, the number of corrupt officials apprehended has increased significantly, largely due to the authorities setting quotas for illicit gains.
“The quotas for illicit gains are real, and I only heard about this last year. A former colleague from the disciplinary system told me last year that in 2023, their (Inner Mongolia) annual confiscation target was 10 billion. At first, everyone was somewhat unsure, but they completed the full-year task in just three months, reaching 30 billion by September.”
Du Wen previously told Radio Free Asia, “Superiors set specific targets and missions; firstly, there is indeed a shortage of money; secondly, corruption is currently at a high incidence period with larger amounts involved in cases. Many of these officials were promoted after the 18th National Congress of the CCP, and corruption has become more rampant than before, with the amounts to be recovered counted in billions.”
Chen Shimin, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University, believes that it is absurd for the CCP to set a specific target amount for each province’s anti-corruption efforts, indicating financial deficits from the central to local levels.
“The fact that Inner Mongolia could turn in 10 billion within three months shows that corruption is widespread. In recent years, due to local debt and real estate issues, tax revenues from the localities have significantly decreased. Consequently, the central government is lacking funds, resorting to targeting these ill-gotten gains.”
He suggests that once the financial strain eases slightly, the authorities might not be as zealous in combating corruption because the extensive crackdowns have the potential to destabilize Xi Jinping’s regime.
Chen Shimin states that authoritarian regimes have systemic corruption issues, and after the confiscation of illicit gains, there are no further actions taken. In democratic countries, due to the presence of opposition parties, if the ruling party or government engages in corruption, they are easily held accountable. “The CCP’s power is concentrated within the party; they control how and to what extent corruption is addressed, making it impossible to stop systemic corruption.”
Du Wen told Dajiyuan that the deep-rooted corruption within the CCP stems from institutional reasons. Corruption is ingrained like the bitter fruit of a tree; merely plucking a few will not yield sweet fruits. The most direct solution is to uproot the old tree and replant a new one suited to the local environment. Unfortunately, the CCP is unwilling to relinquish power.