China’s anti-corruption watchdog says 110,000 Communist Party officials faced disciplinary action last year

The 2023 disciplinary drive targeted tens of thousands of officials who did not perform their duties properly as well as those who received money and gifts

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s enforcement agency, warned officials to stick to the rules in the run-up to Lunar New Year

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Xi Jinping has warned that party and its watchdog must not let their guards down. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 10:00am, 30 Jan 2024Updated: 11:12am, 30 Jan 2024

About 110,000 Chinese Communist Party officials faced disciplinary action last year as part of the ongoing drive to clean up the party’s act, according to the country’s top anti-corruption body.

The figures published by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Sunday represent a 13 per cent increase in the number of cases compared with the previous year.

There is little sign of Beijing easing up on its latest crackdown more than a year after the party’s national congress in October 2022, when President Xi Jinping began an unprecedented third term as China’s paramount leader and filled most key positions with his loyalists.

Last year saw the commission launching corruption probes into a 45 senior officials, a record number, according to a tally by the Post.

Other signs suggest that more senior figures under also under investigation. Apart from last year’s shock removal of Qin Gang as foreign minister and Li Shangfu as defence minister after just months in their jobs, nine senior military officials were abruptly dismissed by China’s national legislative body, the National People’s Congress.

Despite previously hailing an “overwhelming victory” against corruption, Xi told the CCDI’s annual planning event earlier this month that the party must continue to fight graft and other problems with “tenacity, perseverance and precision” to transcend “the historical cycle of rise and fall”.

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