The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top disciplinary watchdog announced on July 22 the results of its disciplinary and criminal investigations for the first half of this year, with the number of officials probed for corruption reaching the highest level over the past decade.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) published a short notice on its official website, stating that from January to June, 316,000 officials at different levels nationwide were placed under criminal investigation.
This figure is 36 percent higher than the average result in previous cases since CCP leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012. Under his anti-corruption campaign, Mr. Xi has been using the CCDI to catch both “tigers and flies”—in reference to high- and low-level officials; around 4,648,000 party officials were probed for corruption in the past decade….