Xi's corruption crackdown targets finance sector

Xi Jinping's crackdown on official corruption has ripped through a secretive missile force, the Communist Party elite, the national football team, and now risks hammering a finance industry already grappling with an economic slowdown.

Since rising to power a decade ago, Xi has waged a constant campaign against deep-seated graft that has led to the punishment of at least 4.7 million officials, according to a 2022 report by the state-run Global Times.

The number of publicly disclosed investigations into senior-level officials rose by 40 percent last year compared with 2022, according to a tally by the Hong Kong-based news outlet South China Morning Post.

And Xi has lately vowed to root out deep-seated malfeasance in the finance, banking and state-owned sectors even as a property crisis, high local government debt and chronically low consumption sap economic vitality.

"Xi simply does not see economic stability as the prime concern, despite the fact that the party extensively relies on growth and development to control grievances and generate support," said Alex Payette, chief executive of Cercius Group, a consultancy specializing in Chinese domestic politics.

He said Xi was targeting a series of critical industries to cushion the impact of foreign sanctions and wrest the economy fully under party control.

For the Chinese leader, "most issues stem... from cadres being led astray from the correct ideological foundation of the party," Payette said.

"Degenerative corruption... directly results from market mechanisms and foreign ideas."

Meanwhile, Xi sees "no contradiction" between shoring up the economy and risking further turbulence in key sectors, said Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of...