The more China investigates corruption, the more it finds. Will the battle ever be won?

In Beijing, jittery government officials and mid-level managers have been reaching out to a small pool of seasoned criminal lawyers. “Usually it comes after a colleague or a close associate has been rounded up, and they want to be at least able to explain things the graft fighters may find suspicious,” said a veteran criminal lawyer in Beijing, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. “That is something we hadn’t seen until these past few years.

” As the list of those rounded up in China’s years-long anti-corruption probes becomes longer, a growing number of mid-level officials across the country have started to consider the once unthinkable – what if they are next? The anxiety has become more distinct since President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive entered its second decade – with no signs of slowing down. “As long as the soil and conditions for corruption exist, the anti-corruption struggle cannot stop for a moment. We must always sound the charge,” Xi declared at the 20th party congress in 2022.



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