China’s top graft-buster says it detained hundreds of SOE officials in first half of 2023

Number of state-owned enterprises investigated ‘significantly increased’ from last year, CCDI says

Anti-corruption agency has targeted the sector after it was listed as a priority in January

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“Multiple breakthroughs” were achieved in state-owned assets supervision and the energy, electricity, car and corporate finance sectors, according to the CCDI. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:00pm, 10 Aug 2023

China’s top graft-buster said it detained more than 140 officials from state-owned enterprises for corruption investigations in the first half of the year, while over 200 turned themselves in.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said the number of SOEs placed under investigation had “increased significantly” compared with the same period last year, but it did not give a figure for 2022.

It made the announcement in a report posted to the CCDI website on Thursday. Of the 142 SOE employees detained from January to June, some 57 had been members of the Communist Party committee at their companies. Committee members are typically the top decision-makers at companies within China’s party-state system.

The CCDI also said it had achieved “multiple breakthroughs” in state-owned assets supervision and the energy, electricity, car and corporate finance sectors.

Cracking down on corruption in SOEs was listed as a priority for the graft-buster this year at a CCDI meeting in January, when state-run firms were described as the “ballast” of the economy and critical to President Xi Jinping’s development agenda.

In March, the CCDI began inspections of 30 of the country’s biggest SOEs directly managed by the state, including China National Nuclear Corporation, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China Rongtong Asset Management Group, China National Petroleum Corporation, and China Three Gorges Corporation.

In Thursday’s report, the CCDI said its inspectors had focused on areas vulnerable to corruption such as big infrastructure projects, procurement, mergers and acquisitions, and mixed-ownership reforms of SOEs.

The report also said CCDI teams had investigated “many” senior cadres at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, China Huaneng Group, China State Shipbuilding Corporation, PetroChina, State Grid Corporation, China FAW Group, Sinochem and China Post.