Infographics
08.15.18
Visualizing China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign
“Catching Tigers and Flies” is ChinaFile’s interactive tool for tracking and, we hope, better understanding the massive campaign against corruption that Xi Jinping launched shortly after he came to power in late 2012. It is designed to give users a sense of the scope and character of the anti-corruption campaign by graphically rendering information about more than 2,000 of its targets whose cases have been publicly announced in official Chinese sources.
ChinaFile Recommends
06.17.16Nephew of China’s Former Domestic Security Tsar Jailed for Graft
Channel NewsAsia
Zhou’s family has been ensnared in President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption, a broad campaign that has felled officials at all levels of government including many of Xi’s top political opponents.
Media
06.11.15
Zhou Yongkang’s Mask of Fear Falls Quietly Away
Zhou Yongkang—erstwhile oil czar, former chief of China’s dreaded state security apparatus, a man once swaggering and fit enough to perform 50 to 100 pushups in front of fawning onlookers—has completed his transformation into a sad historical...
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02.09.15China Executes ‘Mafia-style’ Mining Tycoon Liu Han
BBC
Liu is believed to have had links to former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is currently being investigated.
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01.22.15China Says Ousted Security Tsar’s Influence Corrupted Others
Reuters
Last year, China arrested Zhou and expelled him from the party, accusing him of crimes ranging from taking bribes to leaking state secrets.
Conversation
12.19.14
Just How Successful Is Xi Jinping?
Last week, Arthur Kroeber, Editor of the China Economic Quarterly opined that “…the Chinese state is not fragile. The regime is strong, increasingly self-confident, and without organized opposition.” His essay, which drew strong, if divided,...
Media
12.08.14
Happy Friday, Zhou Yongkang
Eight minutes after midnight on Friday, the axe fell on Zhou Yongkang: a terse news release from state-run Xinhua news agency said that China’s former security czar Zhou had been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party, his case handed over to...
Infographics
12.05.14
China’s Fallen Mighty [Graphic]
Over the past thirty-eight years, twelve of China’s top leaders have been purged. This infographic and the bios of these leaders explain how and why these mighty men fell. Download the high-resolution graphic.
Features
12.05.14
China’s Fallen Mighty [Updated]
Political infighting and purges have been hallmarks of the Chinese Communist Party since its earliest days but came to a peak during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, damaging the country and paralyzing the Party itself. When Mao died in 1976, it...
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11.03.14Tigers and Flies
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post has collected the CCDI’s announcements of graft probes since the beginning of Xi’s reign two years ago, and visualised them on a map. Party probes have spread across China and dramatically intensified since early 2014.
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10.31.14Plenum Didn’t Decide on Zhou Graft Case ‘As He Is No Longer State Leader’
South China Morning Post
The Party's anti-graft watchdog announced three months ago that it was investigating Zhou—making him the first serving or former member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee to be probed—but there has been no word since on progress in the...
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10.24.14China Vows Better Rule of Law, But No Word of Disgraced Security Chief
Reuters
The moves, made at a closed-door meeting of the ruling party's elite, are pivotal to the workings of China's market economy.
Caixin Media
08.25.14
His Start in Oil Fuelled Zhou’s Rise to Top Cop
Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party's supreme decision-making body, has been the highest ranking Party cadre to be a target of a corruption investigation.The Party's graft fighters...
Sinica Podcast
08.02.14
The Rule of Law in China
from Sinica Podcast
This week on Sinica, Jeremy and David are joined by Donald Clarke, a professor at George Washington University where he specializes in Chinese law, for a discussion of what is happening with the Zhou Yongkang corruption scandal, as well as ongoing...
Caixin Media
07.31.14
Ex-Politburo Members Accused of ‘Serious Discipline Violations’ Always Face Courts
After much speculation, the axe has finally fallen on Zhou Yongkang, the former public security chief and member of the Politburo Standing Committee, indicating the Communist Party’s campaign against corruption will grant no exceptions to the...
Conversation
07.31.14
Zhou Yongkang’s Downfall
On July 29, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communisty Party announced it was investigating ex-security czar Zhou Yongkang “on suspicion of grave violations of discipline.” Zhou, who retired from the Politburo...
Media
07.30.14
Paper Tiger
For 10 months, the fate of Zhou Yongkang existed in a space of plausible deniability. Respected Western media outlets had reported that the 71-year-old Zhou, a retired official who served as China's much-feared domestic security czar from 2007...
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07.30.14Beijing Begins Apparent Corruption Probe Into High-Level Official
NPR
China has begun investigations into one of the country's senior politicians. Zhou Yongkang was a former domestic security chief, and he's suspected of "serious disciplinary violations" — a phrase which usually stands for...
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07.30.14Fall of Zhou Yongkang Lights Up China’s Internet
Wall Street Journal
China’s social media microblogs, the country’s de facto town square, have for more than a year seethed with oblique flecks at the fate of former security chief Zhou Yongkang.
Media
07.30.14
Say It Ain’t So, Zhou
It was an exchange perfectly tailored for modern Chinese politics: alternately unscripted and cagey, chummy but laced with a hint of menace. At a Beijing press conference following a Chinese Communist Party meeting in early March, a reporter for...
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07.29.14Zhou Yongkang Political Aides [GRAPHIC]
Business Insider
Reuters has put together a great graphic on Zhou's inner circle many of whom are being investigated themselves. Four, Li Chuncheng, Hua Bangsong,Liu Han, and his son Zhou Bin have already been arrested or are charged. Li Dongsheng, Jiang Jiemin...
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05.23.14Special Report: The Power Struggle Behind China's Corruption Crackdown
Reuters
When Xi Jinping was named President in March last year, the 48-year-old billionaire Liu Han was detained and surrounded by corruption investigators and prison guards.
Caixin Media
05.19.14
“White Glove” Sisters at Center of Coal Country Graft Scandal
Two sisters with business savvy and important friends in high places are now the standout figures in the mysterious case of a former Shanxi province government official, Jin Daoming, charged with corruption.Few details of the Jin case have emerged...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.05.14China Corruption Campaign: On the Trail of Zhou Yongkang
BBC
Until recently one of China's most powerful politicians, Zhou Yongkang has simply disappeared, presumed victim of the Orwellian security apparatus he once controlled.
ChinaFile Recommends
04.24.14Degrees of Influence Peddling in China and U.S.
New York Times
The people who hold the levers of state power control the deployment of vast riches; every decision about a change in the tax code or the issuance of oil drilling licenses is worth billions to someone.
Infographics
03.20.14
Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright
from EG365
The greatest unsolved mystery in China right now is not the disappearance of Malaysian airliner MH370 but the fate of Zhou Yongkang, the feared former head of China’s security apparatus. From 2007 to 2012 a member of China’s top political body, the...
Viewpoint
03.13.14
How Chinese Internet Censorship Works, Sometimes
Earlier this week, Chinese Internet services blocked searches for the phrase mìshū bāng (秘书帮). Roughly translated as “secretaries gang,” the term relates to the speculation surrounding government probes into public officials linked to former...
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03.05.14China Sacks Security Vice-Minister Li Dongsheng
BBC
State media say Mr Li was placed under investigation for “serious disciplinary violations”, usually a reference to corruption, in December.
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03.05.14Beijing Official Detained in Investigation of Former Security Chief
New York Times
The allegations against Liang Ke, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of State Security, involved corruption and his dealings with Zhou Yongkang, the former security chief who has been the main subject of the investigation.
ChinaFile Recommends
02.25.14Beijing Official Detained in Investigation of Former Security Chief
New York Times
Liang Ke, the director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of State Security, was taken into custody last month by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Caixin Media
02.25.14Sichuan Tycoon Charged with Murder Linked to Ex-Top Security Czar’s Son
A Sichuan tycoon who has been charged with a host of gang-related crimes, including murder, was a close business partner of a former top leader’s son, himself caught in a corruption inquiry.Prosecutors say Sichuan Hanlong Group chairman Liu Han, his...
Conversation
12.17.13
Why Is China Purging Its Former Top Security Chief, Zhou Yongkang?
Pin Ho:[Zhou Yongkang’s downfall] is the second chapter of the “Bo Xilai Drama”—a drama begun at the 18th Party Congress. The Party’s power transition has been secret and has lacked convincing procedure. This [lack of transparency] has triggered...
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12.16.13China’s Corruption Purge: The Fall of Zhou Yongkang
Daily Beast
New reports confirm that Zhou Yongkang, China’s third most powerful politician, is under investigation for murder, corruption, and plotting to overthrow the government.
ChinaFile Recommends
12.12.13China Puts Former Security Chief Under House Arrest—Sources
Reuters
China has put Zhou Yongkang—one of the most powerful politicians of the last decade and the most senior official to be ensnared in a graft scandal since the Communists came to power in 1949—under virtual house arrest while the ruling Communist Party...
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12.04.13Son of Former Chinese Security Chief Helping with Graft Probe
Reuters
If Zhou Yongkang, 71, one of China's most powerful politicians of the last decade, were directly implicated in the probe, he would be the most senior Chinese politician ensnared in a graft scandal since the Communists came to power in...
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10.01.13Wison Engineering Services Shares Details of a Corruption Investigation
New York Times
Wison’s disclosure is the latest public signs of a spreading corruption inquiry into the China National Petroleum Corporation that has brought down one senior Chinese Communist Party official.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.12.13Political Maneuvering: The Plot Thickens
Economist
Xi Jinping has been taking down crooked officials in an attempt to consolidate power and make good on a promise to clean up the Party. But what does it mean now he’s set his sights on former chief of domestic security and one-time oilman...
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09.05.13Deng Xiaoping’s Lessons for Today’s China
Bloomberg
The earthy Deng, father of reform-era China, favored a Chinese phrase to describe the current anti-corruption maneuvers being undertaken at Xi Jinping’s behest: killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.
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09.05.13China’s Corruption Purge Continues Against Zhou Yongkang
Daily Beast
As the Chinese public is eagerly awaiting the verdict of Bo Xilai, China’s anti-corruption agency is taking down another target: the 70-year-old Zhou Yongkang, dubbed by overseas media as China’s security tsar, has been put under...
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09.05.13Zhou Yongkang, Former Security Tsar Linked to Bo Xilai, Faces Corruption Probe
South China Morning Post
Sources said top leaders made the decision in view of the rising anger inside the party at the scale of the corruption problem and the vast fortune that Zhou's family has amassed. Xi ordered officials in charge of the case to “get to the bottom...
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06.28.12China Polices Its Police
Economist
In the run-up to this autumn’s Communist Party Congress, at which China will change its most senior leaders for the first time in ten years, provincial- and lower-level party committees have already been revamped. In the process, provincial chiefs...