A security guard watches during the opening session of China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2025. Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty ImagesBeijing’s latest anti-corruption campaign is no longer focused solely on current officials. Instead, it is reaching deep into the past—reinvestigating retired cadres, reopening long-settled cases, and using historical scrutiny as a tool of political control, according to several insiders familiar with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) disciplinary system.Following the CCP’s meeting of its top watchdog agency—the fifth plenum of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI)—that took place from Jan. 12 to 14, internal enforcement practices have begun to shift. The regime’s public messaging emphasizes that anti-corruption efforts are being extended to local governments.
Chinas Anti-Corruption Drive Targets Retired Officials
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