No immunity: how Xi’s anti-corruption fighters are zeroing in on fresh targets

The South China Morning Post has launched a major data project diving into President Xi Jinping’s signature anti-graft campaign. In the second part of an accompanying series, William Zheng examines how the campaign has targeted corrupt officials outside the Chinese capital and long after retirement.

It used to be an easy choice for senior Chinese officials deciding between a local government position and a post at the same level in Beijing.

Most would choose the assignment outside the capital, as fewer supervisors around meant more clout and a bigger say in local affairs. As the Chinese saying goes: “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.”

But that may no longer be true under President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which has sought to target graft in all corners of China’s massive bureaucracy.

In fact, according to a tally by the South China Morning Post, among the most senior tier of officials targeted in the anti-corruption campaign between 2013 and 2025, 60 per cent were taken down while in regional government roles.

According to the same tally, the median age of the officials targeted by the country’s top anti-graft agency was 60 – the usual retirement age for those at the deputy provincial rank.

The SCMP looked at all publicly known officials targeted by the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Most of them belonged to a pool of officials known as “centrally managed cadres”, meaning they typically held ranks at the deputy ministerial level or above. A smaller number of them held slightly lower ranks but occupied sensitive positions in important sectors.