As a record number of senior officials were investigated for corruption last year, China’s campaign to fight graft, which has now reached a wider section of society and retired officials, shows no signs of losing steam, experts said. A total of 58 officials on the central government level were investigated for disciplinary violations in 2024 by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission. Among those, 47 were at the Vice Ministerial level or above, the country’s top anti-corruption watchdogs said in a report on last year’s efforts to fight corruption. The watchdogs said that many “tigers”, a term used to refer to high-ranking corrupt officials, were put under investigation last year in key sectors with a high concentration of power, funds and resources including finance, sports, state-owned enterprises, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure and construction, as well as tendering and bidding. This has sent out a strong signal that efforts to fight corruption in key sectors have been deepened.
In addition, in the first three quarters of 2024, disciplinary inspection and supervision authorities nationwide filed approximately 642,000 cases, the watchdogs said. Peng Xinlin, a senior expert in integrity building and anti-graft fields, said that the increase in the number of “tigers” snatched and cases filed demonstrates the country’s persistent efforts to strengthen anti-corruption campaigns, which shows that the strong momentum to fight corruption will not slacken. “Continued efforts should be made to eliminate the soil that breeds corruption,” Peng said.
The report was published just before the fourth plenary session of the 20th CPC CCDI, the Party’s top disciplinary body, which was held in early January. In 2024, nine former ministerial-level officials had been probed and many of them had held key positions at the provincial level and in ministries, such as Wu Yingjie, former Party Secretary of Tibet, Luo Baoming, former Party Secretary of Hainan province, Tang Renjian, former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Gou Zhongwen, former Director of the General Administration of Sport of China.
Retired high-ranking officials have also been targeted by anti-corruption watchdogs, meaning that retirement is no longer a safety net for corrupt officials. Some ministerial-level officials who have committed violations of discipline also decided to turn themselves in last year, the China Daily reports.
According to the South China Morning Post, PLA deputies have been dismissed from the National People's Congress (NPC) – China's parliament – at a rate not seen for at least four decades, according to public records going back to 1983, amid a campaign to root out corruption in the military. Some 14 military lawmakers have been removed since the current term of the NPC began in March 2023. That is far more than the total for each of the previous two terms. Seven People’s Liberation Army deputies lost their seats as lawmakers in the last five-year term and eight military deputies were dismissed in the term before that, according to public records. Now, the top legislature has 267 members from the PLA and the People’s Armed Police Force – down from the 281 deputies elected to the 14th NPC. The legislature has about 3,000 members.
