Xi Jinping has carried out the largest purge in the Communist Party since Mao

The scale of the purge: researchers' figures and official data

The scale of arrests of party officials under Xi Jinping has not been seen in China since the time of Mao Zedong, and the longer Xi remains in power, the wider the purges become. As Financial Times reports (retold by Kun.uz), as part of the campaign against corruption and disciplinary violations, 14 times more criminal cases have been opened during Xi's third term, which began in 2023, than during the previous term. According to calculations by Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California, over the 11 years of Xi's rule about 628,000 party functionaries have been held criminally liable and have likely been sentenced to imprisonment. For comparison: according to 2024 data, China's prisons hold 1.69 million inmates — meaning the victims of the 'purge' make up a very significant share of those behind bars.

'Tigers' and millions punished

According to Pei's calculations, about 7.2 million members of the Communist Party of China (whose size makes it the largest party in the world) have suffered some form of political, administrative or judicial punishment. Among them are at least 632 'tigers' — as officials at the level of deputy minister or deputy governor of a province and above are called in China. Even higher figures were cited by Zhang Fuhai — deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, which is responsible for intra-party investigations, and deputy head of the National Commission of Supervision of the PRC. According to him, since the party congress at which Xi was confirmed as leader in 2012, disciplinary and oversight bodies have opened 8.105 million cases across the country and held 7.922 million people accountable, including 963 officials under the jurisdiction and supervision of the CPC Central Committee. The Xinhua news agency reported this a week ago following the fifth plenum of the Central Committee.

Political context: power without a successor

Xi belongs to the fifth generation of Chinese leaders, which so far remains the last. After Mao's death it was decided to change the leadership of the party and the country every 10 years, after two five-year terms, but Xi has not chosen a successor for himself and secured his re-election to a third term. In the autumn of 2027, the next party congress will take place, at which Xi, as expected, will be re-elected to a fourth term. At the recent plenum, where about a quarter of the delegates were absent (the number of persecuted participants reached a record level), Xi pushed through a resolution on strengthening party control. Pei notes that it is no coincidence that this happened a year before the congress, at which he is to have his powers as head of state confirmed for another five years.