Power, control and party survival: Why China doubles down on anti-corruption drive in 2026

China’s Communist Party has signalled that President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive will intensify after a record 65 senior officials were detained in 2025, the highest number since the campaign began more than a decade ago.

The figure, released by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), represents a 12 per cent rise - 58 senior officials - over 2024 Starting from a low of 18 in 2020, the figure climbed to 25 in 2021 and 32 in 2022, before reaching 45 in 2023 that underscores the widening scope of the crackdown into China’s political, financial and military systems.

In a front-page editorial, party mouthpiece People’s Daily framed the campaign as essential to the Party’s “self-reform” and to safeguarding its long-term rule. The Party issued notice to its cadres that they must obey discipline amid constant enforcement scrutiny. 

People’s Daily said in an editorial that the party would maintain “high-pressure anti-corruption momentum” and that the standards would only grow stricter over time. The editorial stated, reiterating a speech by Xi published recently in the party magazine Qiushi - “No one should harbour illusions or luck, and there must be no mistaken expectation of any softening of the campaign”.

On December 25, Xi vowed to continue efforts to fight corruption in the new year during a Politburo meeting. CCDI, the top decision-making body, agreed during the meeting to “resolutely push forward the fight against corruption, not stopping for a moment, not yielding an inch.” It reiterated that it would “deepen the comprehensive approach to addressing both the symptoms and root causes” of corruption.

CCDI’s fifth plenary session will be held from January 12 to 14, in which the body will chart the anti-corruption watchdog’s priorities for 2026.

The recent surge in cases highlights both widening exposure of entrenched graft and Beijing’s determination to tighten control amid slowing economic growth, mounting policy challenges and geopolitical strain. Those caught span provincial leaderships, central ministries, state-owned enterprises, elite universities, and, notably, the financial sector. The fall of former securities regulator Yi Huiman sent shock waves through markets already unsettled by weak investor confidence.

The military has also seen sweeping purges. Record numbers of military leaders, including former Central Military Commission vice chairman He Weidong, have been expelled, reflecting Beijing’s concern about corruption within the armed forces amid accelerating military modernisation.

Xi has repeatedly framed corruption as the Party’s greatest existential threat. The CCDI’s upcoming plenary session in mid-January is expected to harden compliance expectations further and to integrate anti-graft enforcement more deeply into political governance.

While the campaign reinforces central authority and projects moral discipline, it also reveals the structural persistence of corruption inside key institutions. The scale and pace of enforcement suggest the Party views the problem not only as unresolved but intensifying steadily since 2020.