China doubles down on anti-corruption fight as crackdown snares 65 ‘tigers’ in 2025
Communist Party mouthpiece calls for tighter discipline in coming years, echoing Xi Jinping’s New Year’s address
In a front-page editorial on Saturday, the People’s Daily stressed that self-reform and anti-corruption efforts were key to ensuring the longevity of the party’s rule over China.
“A new year, a new journey begins,” the party mouthpiece said, urging intensified discipline in the coming years.
Echoing Xi’s New Year’s address, it said the party must continue to answer questions about China’s long-term governance – questions that were raised and answered during the “cave-dwelling dialogue” between Mao Zedong and educator Huang Yanpei in 1945.
In that conversation, which took place at the party’s revolutionary base in Yanan, Mao told Huang and a group of visiting intellectuals that China should rely on the people’s supervision of the government to escape the cycle of rise and fall that had brought down past dynasties.
Xi expanded on this answer in 2021 during a plenary session of the party’s Central Committee. He said the party had found the second answer to ensuring long-term governance: “self-reform”, or maintaining the party’s integrity through strict internal governance.