Xi Jinping Calls for Tighter Party Control After Massive Disciplinary Actions
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has issued a clear directive to Communist Party inspectors. He wants them to enforce leadership decisions with greater force. This command comes as China reveals staggering disciplinary numbers for the past year.
Record Punishments in 2025
Party authorities disciplined a record 983,000 people during 2025. This figure marks a significant 10.6% increase from the previous record set in 2024. It represents the highest annual total since China began releasing such data approximately two decades ago.
The crackdown demonstrates Xi's ongoing campaign to assert control. He aims to ensure his policies are executed exactly as intended across all levels of government.
Addressing Bureaucratic Challenges
State media has elaborated on Xi's concerns. They report that Beijing's plans face frustration from misguided and slow-moving bureaucrats nationwide. The People's Daily, the party's flagship newspaper, highlighted specific problems in a front-page commentary.
"Some areas follow trends blindly," the newspaper stated. It noted local governments sometimes pursue high-profile projects in sectors like semiconductors, electric vehicles, and lithium batteries even when local conditions aren't suitable. When officials implement policies detached from reality, "it's easy for things to become distorted and good scripture to become twisted."
The solution, according to the party, is to "govern the party with strict discipline."
The Impact on Official Initiative
By the party's own admission, these relentless purges have created unintended consequences. Many officials have become reluctant to act decisively. This bureaucratic inertia poses a problem when China needs local dynamism to overcome economic challenges.
Xi has attempted to address this issue directly. He has told officials that honest mistakes can be tolerated. He emphasizes that strict discipline should not sap their can-do spirit.
Nevertheless, punishments for policy-related offenses remain high. From January to November 2025 alone, the party reported punishing over 140,800 people for offenses involving policy inaction, recklessness, or deceit. This already surpasses the 2024 total of nearly 138,000 people.
Evolution of the Anti-Corruption Campaign
The current crackdown began when Xi took power in late 2012. It has evolved from policing graft into a continuous wave of probes. These investigations now aim to compel loyalty to Xi and his agenda above all else.
Authorities have punished more than 7.2 million people since the campaign started. This effort has curbed some of the more egregious forms of graft prevalent before Xi's tenure. It has also cemented his stature as China's most dominant leader in decades.
In recent years, party inspectors have swept through critical industries:
- Finance
- Healthcare
- Defense
These sweeps have rounded up scores of senior officials, executives, and military commanders. Targets have even included individuals once seen as Xi's protégés.
High-Profile Cases and Absences
The campaign has produced several notable cases. He Weidong, formerly China's No. 2 general and a Politburo member, was expelled on corruption charges in October. Another Politburo member, former regional leader Ma Xingrui, has missed a series of high-level meetings recently, fueling speculation about his fate.
Ma's unexplained absence and He's expulsion have left the Politburo with 22 publicly active members. State television publicized other high-profile cases in a four-part documentary series aired this week. The series featured confessional interviews with disgraced officials, including a former agriculture minister and a onetime top banker turned regional leader.
The documentary detailed a corruption process known as "encirclement hunting." This involves unscrupulous businesspeople spending time and money on officials and their families. They then persuade these officials to reciprocate with political favors.
Focus on Political Loyalty and New Corruption Forms
Xi delivered his latest instructions at a conclave of the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). "Corruption is a major obstacle and a stumbling block in the advancement of the party and the nation's causes," Xi told the gathering.
He stated that party inspectors must help enforce the top leadership's decisions more resolutely this year. They must ensure Beijing achieves its goals in the new five-year plan set to launch soon.
The CCDI conclave itself revealed interesting details. It was attended by 120 commission members, or 90% of the original 133 appointed for the current term. This is the lowest participation rate at such meetings since 1986. While nonattendance doesn't always indicate political trouble, many absentees were senior military officers whose careers have come under scrutiny during the defense establishment shake-up.
At the conclave, the CCDI outlined its priorities for the coming year:
- Enforcement of political loyalty
- Continued efforts to curb corruption in key sectors (finance, energy, education, state-owned enterprises)
- Tackling emergent and "hidden" forms of corruption, such as deferred bribe payments and "revolving door" arrangements between public office and corporate jobs
"We must unswervingly maintain a high-pressure posture," Xi declared to the CCDI. "Corruption must be countered, graft must be eradicated, and evil must be eradicated, so that corrupt elements have no place to hide."
The official Xinhua News Agency underscored the central challenge. It stated that the high volume of cases highlights Beijing's difficulty in getting lower-level governments to follow its bidding. "The central leadership's decisions must be resolutely and effectively implemented," Xinhua emphasized. Officials at all levels must "understand the party center's strategic intentions, and they mustn't discount, alter or distort them."
