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Chinese official leading security purge ‘may be on fast track to promotion’, analysts say

  • Chen Yixin is heading a campaign to ‘clean up the diseases and tumours’ in the country’s law enforcement agencies
  • It will end ahead of the twice-a-decade party congress, and observers say he could be promoted to the Politburo

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Chen Yixin compared the new campaign to the Yanan Rectification Movement, a political and ideological purge in the 1940s. Photo: Handout

The security official leading a campaign to purge “corrupt elements” from China’s law enforcement agencies may be in line for a fast rise up the political ladder, according to observers.

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Chen Yixin, secretary general of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission – which oversees police officers, prosecutors, courts and prisons – announced the two-year “rectification and education campaign” a week ago.

It would target law enforcers who colluded with or offered protection to criminals and “two-faced” officials who paid lip service to the Communist Party’s rules and orders, he said.

At a meeting to launch the campaign in Beijing last week, Chen described it as “a self-initiated revolution by the security system to clean up the diseases and tumours among us”.

He also compared it to the Yanan Rectification Movement – a political and ideological purge in the 1940s to remove rivals and establish Mao Zedong as the leader of the party.

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President Xi Jinping sees the security forces as critical to his rule and to stability, a political scientist noted. Photo: Reuters
President Xi Jinping sees the security forces as critical to his rule and to stability, a political scientist noted. Photo: Reuters
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