Xi Jinping's Anti-Corruption Campaign: From Moral Renewal to Political Control

As Liu Jianchao, China's prominent diplomat and head of the International Liaison Department, was detained for questioning, it marked a significant shift in Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign. The campaign, which began in 2012, initially aimed to root out corruption and restore moral renewal within the Communist Party. However, over time, it has evolved into a mechanism for political survival and control, engulfing sectors once thought insulated, including the military, technology elite, and now, the foreign policy establishment.

Key Takeaways:

• The anti-corruption campaign has punished millions of officials since 2012, targeting both high-ranking "tigers" and lowly "flies."
• The campaign's scope has expanded to include sectors once thought insulated, such as the military and technology elite.
• Liu Jianchao's detention demonstrates the shift in the campaign's focus from rooting out corruption to policing loyalty.
• The targeting of Liu, a seasoned diplomat with a reputation for repairing frayed ties with the United States and Europe, suggests that foreign-facing elites are viewed with suspicion.
• Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign has outgrown its initial justification of cleaning up graft and has become a governance mechanism premised on fear, unpredictability, and personal loyalty to the Chinese president.
• The campaign has become a tool for Xi to consolidate power and maintain control, with even senior diplomats like Liu becoming targets.
• Xi Jinping has used the anti-corruption campaign to discipline the Party from above, rather than reforming it from within.
• The campaign has become a means to demonstrate the unrelenting reach of Party discipline and to turn enforcers into examples.
• Liu Jianchao's detention is less about corruption and more about control, highlighting the irony of a man who once hunted down corrupt officials abroad now being hunted by the very system he helped build.

Statistics:

• Since 2012, the anti-corruption campaign has punished millions of officials.
• The campaign has targeted both high-ranking "tigers" and lowly "flies."
• The Foreign Ministry has historically enjoyed a degree of insulation from the most disruptive aspects of Party purges, but the targeting of Liu Jianchao disrupts this tradition.
• Foreign policy has become an arena that requires continual ideological policing under Xi Jinping's leadership.

Sources:

• Daily Mirror Sri Lanka, "China: Liu Jianchao's detention for questioning sparks ripples in Beijing's diplomatic and political circles" (no date given)
• Source 2: (no secondary source provided)