China Briefing | Xi Jinping's wider ambitions in rooting out graft
The president has consolidated extraordinary power to battle for the legitimacy of the party, a move that points to his visions for his legacy
What is Xi Jinping's endgame?
That is the most frequently asked question among the investors who try to make sense of the president's sweeping anti-graft campaign, which could have profound political and economic implications for the mainland.
Since Xi came to power in November 2012, he has made it his top priority to tackle rampant corruption, a campaign that has seen tens of thousands of Communist Party officials punished, including more than 30 very senior ones. The biggest anti-corruption drive since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 reached a new level when the leadership announced a formal probe into Zhou Yongkang, the country's security tsar for five years and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee until 2012. That was preceded by a formal investigation into Xu Caihou, one of the People's Liberation Army's top generals until 2012.
As Xi's campaign has sent a chill across the bureaucracy and elicited loud cheers among ordinary mainlanders, questions have been raised about his motives. In particular, many people have been wondering how long the campaign will last and whether Zhou's downfall marks the beginning of the end of the drive. A more cynical view holds that Xi's corruption drive is merely part of his efforts to consolidate power by targeting adversaries and protecting allies.
As the annual informal gathering of current and former party elite is reportedly under way in Beidaihe, there have been suggestions that Xi could be under pressure from other leaders to scale down the corruption drive and shift the focus back to stimulating the economy. Indeed, some investors have started to complain the corruption drive has already produced an unintended consequence - scared officials withdrawing into stasis and delaying approval of many projects as they pay little attention to performing their daily duties while wondering if they could be the next target.
While the speculation is not without basis, there are also strong signs that Xi's campaign is far from over, and many people have underestimated his determination to bolster not only his own power but also the party's, while pushing for a radical reform agenda.