Xi’s Crackdown on "Minor Corruption" Won’t Save the CCP

On January 6, 2025, at the plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Xi Jinping stated: "The stockpile of corruption has not yet been eradicated, and new cases continue to emerge..." indirectly admitting the failure of the anti-corruption campaign. (Video screenshot)

[People News] Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping is launching a nationwide campaign targeting low-level corruption and has emphasized increasing punishments for grassroots officials. Analysts believe that by extending the anti-corruption campaign to lower levels of government, Xi and the CCP authorities aim to redirect public anger toward local officials rather than the central leadership, in an effort to prolong the CCP’s rule. However, the CCP’s authoritarian system itself is the breeding ground for corruption, and only by ending the CCP can the fundamental issue of government corruption be resolved.

At the beginning of this year, the CCP’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) held its fourth plenary session, attended by all seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee. Xi Jinping demanded that the anti-corruption campaign be extended to grassroots levels and called for continued punishment of "minor corruption" among lower-ranking officials.

Following this meeting, CCP state media People’s Daily published an article titled "Punishing ‘Micro-Corruption’ to Make the Public Feel the Impact." The article cited examples of cracking down on illegal activities such as mafia-backed corruption at the grassroots level.

According to official reports cited in the article, since the CCP’s 20th National Congress, the country’s disciplinary inspection agencies have investigated 768,000 corruption cases, disciplined 628,000 individuals, and transferred 20,000 officials to judicial authorities for prosecution.

Regarding this latest anti-corruption campaign targeting grassroots officials, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Xi Jinping’s crackdown on minor corruption is one of the measures the CCP is taking to respond to the social backlash caused by China’s economic downturn. These challenges include a sluggish real estate market and persistently high youth unemployment, which have not only weakened consumer confidence and fueled social unrest but also intensified criticism of Xi’s economic policies.

The report noted that this latest enforcement effort takes Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign to a new level. Over a decade ago, he initiated the movement to craft a populist image and strengthen the CCP’s grip on power.

However, both domestic and international public opinion widely views Xi’s anti-corruption campaign as a failure. The fundamental reason for this failure lies in the CCP’s authoritarian system, which inherently breeds corruption.

Xi’s push to extend the anti-corruption campaign to lower levels of government comes at a time when the CCP is antagonizing the world, failing in domestic governance, and presiding over a declining economy. More than half of the population earns less than 1,000 yuan per month, living in poverty, while local governments are burdened with unsustainable debt. In response, they resort to extracting more wealth from the people, making life even harder for the public.

The general public sees no hope and harbors deep resentment towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Incidents of societal revenge are on the rise, with more citizens vocally asserting that 'the government is just a right turn ahead,' suggesting that they can express their anger by targeting CCP officials rather than indiscriminately harming innocent people. Consequently, there has been an increase in cases of villagers violently killing village heads and party secretaries, as well as street vendors being pursued and attacked by city management, police, and demolition teams. The fury aimed at overthrowing the CCP's brutal regime is only intensifying.

Xi Jinping has steered the anti-corruption campaign towards punishing 'fly and ant corruption,' a strategy aimed at prolonging the CCP's grip on power.

Deng Yuwen, a commentator for Voice of America and a former journalist in China, highlighted in his December 2024 article titled 'Corruption is Inherent in the CCP, and the Authorities' Anti-Corruption Efforts are Futile' that 'when reflecting on Chinese politics in 2024, one clear aspect is the rampant corruption among CCP officials, which has emerged like bamboo shoots after a rain.' He noted, 'This suggests that the anti-corruption efforts have failed, or at the very least, have not been effective.'

Deng Yuwen further stated: 'This is not to deny that the authorities have successfully taken down numerous 'tigers' over the years, and that the so-called rectification of style and strict governance of the party has had no deterrent effect. However, the increasing number of anti-corruption 'tigers' each year further demonstrates that the CCP's corruption cannot be fundamentally contained or corrected. In this regard, it can be concluded that the authorities' anti-corruption efforts have failed. The root of this failure lies in the fact that CCP corruption is an inherent issue within the system, which must be fundamentally addressed through political reform.' Otherwise, the CCP's 'internal anti-corruption may seem self-critical, but it only injures the tendons without affecting the bones, scraping the bones without addressing the underlying poison.'

In other words, the Communist Party of China (CPC) must be dismantled to genuinely eradicate the root causes of corruption that stem from the political system.

In this context, Lai Rongwei (賴榮偉), the Executive Director of the Taiwan Inspirational Association, stated to The Epoch Times that the CPC is a totalitarian party, and its anti-corruption initiatives serve merely as a tool in its political battles. Xi Jinping's push for anti-corruption measures to reach the grassroots level suggests that the foundation of the CPC is already unstable. 'Xi Jinping's call for grassroots anti-corruption will not yield results. After years of the CPC's anti-corruption campaign, just look at the comments from the Chinese public on social media; they ridicule the CPC's anti-corruption efforts, claiming it only targets small offenders while ignoring the big ones.' 'Particularly in the last two years, Xi Jinping has severely mismanaged the economy, leading to significant social instability, and the discontent towards him has quietly begun to spread, to the point where it is nearly uncontainable.'

Professor Ye Yaoyuan (葉耀元), Chair of International Studies at the University of St. Thomas in the United States, also asserts that the CPC's anti-corruption rhetoric is merely a slogan, as the entire CPC system is inherently corrupt, making it impossible for it to effectively combat corruption without undermining itself. Only through the disintegration of the CPC can Chinese society progress towards a path of democracy and freedom.