The recent unclassified report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) shines a critical light on the pervasive wealth and corruption within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), confirming long-held suspicions about its fundamental rot.
The report identifies that corruption has been a systemic issue in Communist China since its founding, driven by the CCP’s concentrated power, lack of transparency, and absence of independent oversight. Until recently, gathering data on the party’s corrupt practices was a formidable challenge, as the CCP ruthlessly guarded its internal operations from public view.
However, in 2012, following Xi Jinping’s ascension as general secretary of the party and head of state, he initiated a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, pledging to tackle both “flies” (lower-level officials) and “tigers” (high-ranking officials). This ongoing campaign, now spanning over a decade, has inadvertently unveiled the staggering scope of corruption plaguing the party.
Many initially viewed Xi’s anti-graft campaign as a tactic to eliminate political rivals. However, the ODNI analysis reveals a more profound motivation: Xi’s concern that the rampant corruption is eroding the legitimacy of the CCP and obstructing his geopolitical ambitions.
Under Xi, corruption is framed foremost as a political crime — indicative of “disloyalty and ideological weakness” — that threatens the party’s unity. This explains why it is always the internal party organizations, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and the National Supervisory Commission (NSC), that lead the investigations of members’ “party discipline breaches” (a code name for corruption). The party has the final say on which cases will be handed over to the judicial system for criminal prosecution.
Huge Corruption
Once cases reach the courts, the conviction rate is almost 100 percent, a clear indication that China’s judicial system is another tool to serve the party’s interests. Between 2012 and 2022, CCDI and NSC investigated nearly 5 million CCP members, with 4.7 million found guilty of corruption, highlighting the issue’s magnitude.
The ODNI report further points out that the level of corruption varies significantly by region and rank. A revealing study in one Chinese city discovered that “8- to 65-percent of officials — depending on the official’s rank — received an unofficial income from bribery or graft.” In addition, both a broader study and a public perception survey estimated that “approximately half of Chinese officials have engaged in corruption, especially at the local levels” and “bribery could increase an official’s legal earnings four to six times.”
The ODNI analysis underscores a crucial factor driving this widespread corruption at the local level: the economic growth targets mandated by the central government, which are directly linked to the career advancement of local officials. While these targets are obligatory, the central government places no constraints on how to achieve them. This structure and the lack of oversight effectively incentivize provincial and local leaders to “take illicit actions for personal and professional gain.”
Still, corruption at the senior levels of the CCP is even more pervasive. According to the ODNI report, more than 80 percent of senior party leaders charged with crimes in the last decade were implicated in bribery. As of last year, at least 50 senior party officials were under anti-corruption investigation.
Purging Military
Xi’s aggressive purge of corrupt senior military officials is particularly notable, stemming from his deep-seated concern that corruption within military ranks could undermine loyalty and jeopardize the military’s readiness for a possible conflict with Taiwan.
In 2023 alone, the CCDI conducted anti-graft investigations that led to the arrest of Li Yuchao, the commander of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF), along with several other current and former PLARF personnel. The PLARF plays a key role in maintaining and deploying China’s nuclear warheads and strengthening the country’s deterrence capabilities. A few months later, China’s Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu first “disappeared” from public eyes and was later officially removed from his position, also due to corruption charges. In 2024, Adm. Miao Hua, the director of the Central Military Commission’s Political Work Department, was also suspended amid corruption allegations. Some China observers say these aggressive purges of senior military officials have weakened rather than strengthened Xi’s control of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Leadership’s Family Wealth
Furthermore, Xi’s anti-corruption campaign notably spares the most senior leadership of the party, including his own family. This is particularly striking in light of the 2012 revelations by Bloomberg and The New York Times exposing the extensive wealth of the family of China’s then-premier, Wen Jiabao, which was at least $2.7 billion at the time. Similarly, Xi’s extended family was found to own more than $1 billion in business investments and real estate.
The Chinese government’s reaction to these reports was swift and severe, because the most senior CCP leadership’s wealth and corruption have long been a sensitive subject in China. In retaliation, Beijing took drastic measures against Bloomberg and The New York Times by shutting down both media outlets’ Mandarin sites, blocking several of their English sites, and denying visas to their journalists. This aggressive response illustrates the regime’s tight grip on information and the sensitivity of the topic.
The ODNI report speculates that Xi might have urged family members to divest holdings as he launched an anti-graft campaign. Still, research shows Xi’s family continues to own millions in business interests and financial investments as of 2024.
Xi pledges to make government officials and the military “unable and unwilling to be corrupt,” but his anti-graft campaign is undermined by the glaring hypocrisy of targeting corruption among other party members while allowing his own family to profit from their ties to power. This contradiction erodes the effectiveness of his anti-corruption campaign and suggests it is destined for failure.
Moreover, corruption within the CCP is a deeply rooted, systemic problem. As long as China remains a one-party state, where power is consolidated within the CCP and there is no independent judiciary or free press to hold officials accountable, the party will continue to be deeply corrupt, regardless of how many members Xi chooses to imprison.
The release of this crucial ODNI report is likely to elicit a strong response from Xi, as the report reveals embarrassing information that he has diligently attempted to hide from public scrutiny. This disclosure comes at a critical moment when China and the United States are engaged in various disputes, from trade to technology. Experts suggest that the timing of the report is intentional, with Washington probably aiming at “exposing internal vulnerabilities in Xi’s regime while also undermining the offshore money laundering and strategic corruption Beijing is believed to use for influence-building across the Western Hemisphere and the South Pacific.” The potential ripple effects of this report could be substantial and warrant close attention.
