China’s war on corruption – is this just the end of the beginning?

More ‘tigers’ are being culled than ever before in a campaign that could be becoming the new normal

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Yuanyue Dangin BeijingandWilliam Zhengin Hong Kong

Published: 6:00am, 4 Mar 2026Updated: 6:05am, 4 Mar 2026

In the run-up to this year’s ‘two sessions’ – the annual meetings of China’s top legislature and political advisory body – high-level policymakers have stressed the need to defuse financial risks and root out political corruption, two of President Xi Jinping’s long-term priorities. As part of a series, Yuanyue Dang and William Zheng look at why the fight against graft is the new normal.

As early as the start of President Xi Jinping’s second term in 2018, the Chinese leadership declared an “overwhelming victory” in its battle against corruption.

In the first five years of the campaign, some of the biggest names in the ruling Communist Party’s elite body, the Politburo, had been brought down, including Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest echelon in China’s political hierarchy.

Rather than signalling an end, the declaration now appears to have been a beginning.

Last year, graft fighters at various levels punished more than 983,000 people, according to numbers released in January.

In the same year, the Communist Party’s top graft-fighters also detained 65 high-ranking officials.

All of these sacked officials will be absent from the annual “two sessions”, which starts on Wednesday.

China’s war on corruption – is this just the end of the beginning?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}More ‘tigers’ are being culled than ever before in a campaign that could be becoming the new normal

More ‘tigers’ are being culled than ever before in a campaign that could be becoming the new normal