Xi expels record 33 officials in purge of party’s ‘serious hidden dangers’

Xi Jinping has expelled a record number of officials as part of a drive to purge “hidden dangers” from within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Some 33 members have been purged, including 16 from the military, as the Chinese president strengthens his grip on the state.

Zhang Youxia, Beijing’s highest-ranking general, was dismissed after a months-long corruption investigation.

Ma Xingrui, a former party secretary of the Xinjiang region, was removed from all of his posts over allegations of corruption, including nepotism, bribery and paying for sex.

Zhang Fuhai, the deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said the central committee – “with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core” – had “eliminated serious hidden dangers within the party, the state and the military”.

At a news briefing, he told reporters that the party had carried out the purge because “we would rather offend thousands than let down 1.4 billion people”.

Members of the CCP gathered this week for the plenum, a meeting of top officials that happens seven times in a five-year period. This plenum, the fifth of seven, saw the largest number of empty chairs in Chinese history.

Only 279 members filled the seats in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People – down from the 376 members named on the committee at the last party congress in 2022. It was the first time during Mr Xi’s leadership that attendance fell below 300.

Mr Xi has made the fight against corruption a key pillar of his leadership since he came to power in 2012, purging officials at all levels, including those believed to be close to him and his family. Millions of officials have been disciplined, ousted or jailed in the past 14 years.

Among those announced this week was Mr Youxia, a senior general who had been Mr Xi’s second-in-command as the vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) until he was placed under investigation in January.

In recent years, Mr Xi has removed every member of the CMC except himself and Zhang Shengmin, who remains its vice-chairman and leads the president’s anti-corruption campaign. 

Liu Zhenli, the former chief of staff of the CMC’s joint staff department, was also on the list of 33 purges this week.

Mr Ma, the former top official of Xinjiang, had been seen as part of Mr Xi’s inner circle and had been thought to share a bond with Peng Liyuan, Mr Xi’s wife, because they both grew up in the Shandong province.

Many of those on the list, including Mr Youxia, Mr Liu and Mr Ma, had already been publicly ousted before this week’s announcement.

After the plenum, the party said the meeting had confronted the “grave situation marked by weak, hollow, and watered-down party leadership, lax, superficial and ineffective self-supervision and self-governance, as well as some startling problems within the party”.

On Friday, Mr Fuhai, of the CCDI, said the disciplinary organisation had penalised 7.9 million people since 2012.

Efforts to weed out corruption would be “deepened”, he pledged, especially in sectors “characterised by the concentration of power, large amounts of funds and rich resource”.

Mr Fuhai said: “We will prioritise the investigation of issues where political and economic problems are intertwined, collusion between government and business, and the infiltration of capital into the political sphere.

“We will thoroughly investigate new forms of corruption and hidden corruption, and routinely address misconduct and corruption affecting the public at the grassroots level.”

The plenum also outlined the plans for the 21st party congress, which happens every five years and is slated for the second half of 2027.

Many experts believe Mr Xi’s anti-corruption purges are preparation for the party congress, where he is expected to secure a fourth term, which would make him the longest-serving leader of the country since Mao Zedong, who founded modern-day China.

In Mr Xi’s third term alone, which began in March 2023, 51 party members have been expelled, up from 35 during his second term and five in his first term.

During the cull, a significant promotion was made. Mr Shengmin, Mr Xi’s last man standing in the CMC, was promoted to the Politburo, the top governing body of the CCP. His promotion marks the first to the politburo outside a party congress since 1994.

Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society think tank, said Mr Xi could be positioning his “experienced enforcer” to continue serving after the next party congress, or trying to “preserve the norm of at least one [People’s Liberation Army] general on the Politburo after Zhang Youxia’s formal expulsion”.