When Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, he pledged to root out corruption in all ranks of the Communist Party. More than a decade later, the pace of investigations has not slowed. Last year, Chinese disciplinary authorities opened investigations into more than a million people, including more than 100 officials at the ministerial or provincial level or higher.
As Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials kick off an important meeting this week, discipline – and loyalty to the party – is a priority on the agenda. For those trying to read the tea leaves of China’s political elite, concern over the apparent lack of discipline dominates the CCP’s discussions.
The “fifth plenum” began Monday and is expected to focus on “major issues aimed at advancing the party’s full and rigorous autonomy,” according to Chinese state media. In party language, “governance” is synonymous with discipline, loyalty and the fight against corruption.
As Xi continues to crack down on corruption, the fact that investigations almost always result in a conviction raises questions about whether the targets are actually guilty of corruption or are simply political rivals of the officials.
Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, explained that in Xi’s worldview, obsessed with discipline and loyalty, there may not be much difference between the two. “If you’re corrupt, you’re not politically loyal. If you’re politically loyal, you’re not corrupt,” Brown said.
He added that in the CCP system, “corruption is not only a material thing,” but also “spiritual corruption,” which includes political disloyalty.
Some analysts argue that the reason the anti-corruption campaign is so enduring is that corruption is a feature rather than a bug of an authoritarian political system, imposed from above, with a sprawling bureaucracy that governs 1.4 billion people.
Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society think tank, said: “Xi has made the party less corrupt and strengthened its control, but he knows that tougher sanctions cannot completely solve the problem of officials putting their own interests ahead of those of the party.
“Xi’s response is to continue to tighten discipline, making the fight against corruption a permanent method of governing without there being an obvious point at which he can declare the job done,” Thomas said.
The work may be endless, but the plenum is an opportunity to refocus the party’s energy on discipline. The Fifth Plenum is the fifth of seven gatherings that normally take place each five-year cycle between CPC congresses. The plenums bring together more than 300 members of the CPC Central Committee, the highest officials in the party hierarchy.
The meeting is particularly important because it will likely be the last substantive meeting before next year’s 21st Party Congress, where a new Central Committee will be chosen and Xi is expected to be nominated for a fourth term as CPC leader.
Eliminating anyone who poses a risk to his authority or the party’s credibility is a key priority for Xi. And potential threats are everywhere. Nearly 15 years after Xi took office, according to CCP proclamations and a series of recent surveys, the problem has still not been eradicated. “It’s a deeply ingrained element of (Xi’s) worldview,” Brown said. “Everyone is corrupt.”
In the past, Xi has warned that the party could “lose its leading status and be inevitably eliminated by history” if it fails to put its affairs in order. “This is by no means an exaggeration,” he said.
The current focus on party governance comes amid a series of high-profile investigations against senior party and military leaders.
In January, Zhang Youxia, China’s top general and second only to Xi in the military hierarchy, came under investigation; he was expelled from the party last month, having already been excluded from the military’s highest governing body, the Central Military Commission (CMC).
A slew of other purges mean the CMC, which normally has seven members, has been reduced to just two: Xi and Zhang Shengmin, the CMC’s disciplinary chief.
Other recent scalps include Ma Xingrui, the former party secretary for Xinjiang, and Huang Qifan, the former mayor of Chongqing.
Huang has long been known as the ultimate survivor in Chinese politics due to his links to the scandals of the early 2010s in which Xi’s political rival Bo Xilai, a former Party chief in Chongqing, was implicated in the death of British businessman Neil Heywood. Bo was ultimately convicted of corruption and embezzlement, for which he is serving a life sentence, but Huang survived. Not anymore.
Some Chinese analysts wonder whether the recent purges, which have reached the highest echelons of the Party and the military ranks, do not indicate instability in the regime. But Xi probably sees things differently. Corruption investigations show who is in charge. Moreover, Brown added, they are “the simplest and most natural tool for imposing unity and discipline.”
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