Xi Jinping’s war on corruption has reached a new peak, and China’s leader is signaling that the purge machine is not slowing down. Communist Party enforcers punished almost a million people in 2025, according to data published by party authorities. Even after more than a decade of relentless crackdowns, Xi is telling discipline inspectors to push harder, tighten control, and enforce loyalty to his agenda as Beijing prepares a new five year economic plan.
This is not a campaign that is only about a few fallen giants at the top. It is an engine of discipline aimed at the entire party state system, from local officials to senior military leaders. Xi’s message is blunt: corruption blocks China’s goals, and officials must not resist, delay, or distort the center’s orders.
A Record Year: Nearly One Million Disciplined
The Wall Street Journal reports that party authorities drove the crackdown to new heights in 2025, disciplining 983,000 people. The measures included reprimands, suspension, demotion, and expulsion. The figure represented a 10.6% increase from an already record year in 2024 and was the highest annual total since the party started releasing such data about two decades ago.
Xi delivered his new instructions at a conclave of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s top internal discipline body. Weeks before Beijing is set to launch its next five year economic blueprint, Xi ordered inspectors to flex their supervisory powers more forcefully and ensure his policies are executed as intended.
“Corruption is a major obstacle and a stumbling block in the advancement of the party and the nation’s causes,” Xi said at the meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Graft, Inaction, and Disloyalty
The Wall Street Journal reports that the crackdown has evolved beyond policing graft and now aims to compel loyalty to Xi and his agenda. Party messaging suggests Beijing is frustrated with bureaucrats who delay or warp policy in the real world, even when they claim to be following orders.
State media amplified Xi’s warning. The People’s Daily said some areas follow trends blindly and chase high profile sectors championed by Beijing such as semiconductors, electric vehicles, and lithium batteries even when local conditions are not conducive. When officials implement policies in ways that are detached from reality, the paper said, “it’s easy for things to become distorted and good scripture to become twisted.” The solution, it argued, is strict party discipline.
The party has also reported punishing huge numbers of officials for policy related offenses. From January to November 2025, authorities punished more than 140,800 people for offenses related to policy inaction, recklessness, or deceit, surpassing the 2024 total of nearly 138,000. Xinhua said the high volume of such cases underscores Beijing’s challenge in getting lower level governments to do its bidding.
Xinhua also warned that the central leadership’s decisions must be “resolutely and effectively implemented,” and officials must not “discount, alter or distort” them.
Xi’s purge system has helped him consolidate power to a degree described as unseen in China in decades, yet he is still demanding more commitment to his agenda. As China faces economic challenges and seeks momentum heading into the next five year plan, Xi is using discipline enforcement to pressure officials into compliance and performance.
At the same time, the Wall Street Journal reports that the purges have created a serious side effect. By the party’s own admission, the high pressure crackdowns have made many officials reluctant to act decisively and have fueled bureaucratic inertia among China’s 100 million party members. Xi has tried to counter this by telling officials that honest mistakes can be tolerated and strict discipline should not sap their can do spirit.
But the numbers and the messaging show that the system remains built on fear, consequences, and relentless supervision.
The Intel Community Report: Nearly 5 Million Found Guilty
Alongside the Wall Street Journal’s 2025 figure, a declassified U.S. intelligence report adds another measure of scale. A report from the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence titled “Wealth and Corrupt Activities of the Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party” stated that since Xi came to power in 2012, nearly 5 million officials at all levels of government have been found guilty of bribery.
That report described corruption as an endemic feature of China’s system, enabled by power centralized in the hands of the Communist Party, a party centric concept of rule of law, limited transparency, and a lack of independent checks on officials.
The same excerpt says Xi’s anti corruption campaign inside the People’s Liberation Army is tied to concerns about military readiness and loyalty. It references a culture of pay for promotion and names senior military figures removed from their posts, including former defense minister Li Shangfu and Admiral Miao Hua, who oversaw political loyalty work inside the PLA.
Enforcers Break People: Reprimand, Demotion, Expulsion, and Public Confession
The Wall Street Journal describes punishments that include reprimands, suspension, demotion, and expulsion. It also describes a propaganda element designed to humiliate and warn. State television aired a four part documentary series featuring confessional interviews with disgraced officials. The series included a former agriculture minister and a onetime top banker turned regional leader.
The program described a process called “encirclement hunting,” in which businesspeople cultivate officials and their families with financial benefits, then persuade them to reciprocate with political favors. The confessional format turns punishment into a public lesson, reinforcing the message that no official is safe.
The Wall Street Journal also reports that Xi’s purge waves have even buffeted the agency running the crackdown, with unusually low attendance at a CCDI conclave and absences by senior military officers whose careers have come under a cloud amid corruption shake ups in the defense establishment.
High Level Targets: Politburo Members and Top Generals
The purge is not limited to low level “flies.” The Wall Street Journal reports that in the past three years, party inspectors have swept through industries including finance, healthcare, and defense, while rounding up scores of senior officials, executives, and military commanders.
One striking example was He Weidong, described as China’s number two general and a member of the Politburo, who was expelled on corruption charges in October. The Wall Street Journal also notes that another Politburo member, former regional leader Ma Xingrui, missed a series of high level meetings, fueling speculation about his fate.
The Christian Science Monitor described the purge as nearly unprecedented in both the number and rank of toppled officials. It said a plenum expelled 14 members and alternates and highlighted the ousting of nine generals including He Weidong, calling him the first vice chairman of the Central Military Commission to be purged in decades. It quoted Lyle Goldstein saying the removals at that level were almost unprecedented.
The same report describes the purge as a tool to keep the military under control, citing Mao’s dictum that the party controls the gun and stressing Xi’s desire for complete control.
How Many Senior Officials Are Being Removed
The ChinaFile joint publication included in the material says purges have been numerous across the system. It reports that at least 58 high ranking cadres lost their positions in the first three quarters of 2024 and that 642,000 cadres at various levels were punished over the same period, citing official statistics.
It also says that among the 205 full members of the Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee, at least eight were purged, eight appeared to be in trouble due to prolonged unexplained absences and other signals, and three were sidelined. It concluded that 9.3 percent of members of China’s most powerful political authority were affected only a little more than two years after the committee was reconstituted.
The Christian Science Monitor report adds that nearly 1 in 6 of the 376 officials named to the committee in 2022 were absent from a plenum, an indicator experts cited as showing the scope of officials who have fallen into disfavor.
The ChinaFile piece argues that the purges continued even after Xi installed loyalists into top positions, raising the question of why he keeps purging men he has personally chosen. It argues that when viewed through what it calls Stalin logic, the pattern becomes easier to predict: once rivals are removed, the purge shifts toward allies and protégés, creating fear that silences dissent but also discourages initiative.
By the party’s own admission the purges have produced bureaucratic inertia. The campaign’s scale is a sign of power, but also a sign of mistrust inside the system.
The Wall Street Journal describes Xi’s purges as enabling an autocratic level of control unseen in China in decades, yet Xi is demanding more. The record 983,000 disciplined in 2025 shows the system can punish at industrial scale. The intelligence report’s claim that nearly 5 million officials have been found guilty since 2012 shows the broader magnitude of the enforcement state Xi has built.
The message to China’s bureaucracy is simple. Loyalty is not assumed. Compliance is not optional. And in Xi’s China, even those closest to the top can be removed, shamed, and erased when the leader decides more discipline is needed.
ACZ Editor: One ominous phrase “punish at industrial scale” seems to bring images certain darker days in Europe. Add to the purges the million Uyghurs that are captive, and so many other things, and you might think China is worse.