Ten “Tigers” Taken Down in the First Month
[People News] This year is a crucial one for the CCP’s personnel arrangements, as the Party will convene its 21st National Congress next year. Key provincial and ministerial-level positions must be settled this year, and local governments are also beginning leadership transitions. As a result, this year’s anti-corruption “tiger hunting” is expected to intensify dramatically.
After the downfall of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, Xi’s CCP authorities, within the final three days of the month, also detained former Inner Mongolia Party Secretary Sun Shaocheng and Minister of Emergency Management Wang Xiangxi, both at the full-ministerial level. According to official CCP announcements, a total of 10 “tigers” (officials at the centrally managed cadre level and above) fell in January alone, covering central ministries, regional leaders, and executives of central state-owned enterprises. Several were members of the 20th Central Committee, and five were investigated while still in office.
Factional struggles within the CCP have now penetrated the core leadership. The intensity, pace, and number of cases have set records for the same period in history. According to CCP figures released for 2025, 65 centrally managed cadres were investigated for the entire previous year. At this year’s opening pace, the total could far exceed last year’s number.
Observers analyze that high-risk sectors for senior officials this year may be concentrated in party and government organs, finance, state-owned enterprises, and energy. At the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection plenary session held in early 2026, Xi Jinping stated that “anti-corruption is a major battle we cannot afford to lose and must not lose.” The communiqué emphasized the need to “resolutely eliminate ‘two-faced people’ who harbor divided loyalties and say one thing but do another,” and when deploying anti-corruption work for 2026, it specifically named finance, state-owned enterprises, and energy as sectors involving “key minorities.” It is possible that the CCP already holds evidence of disloyalty among these “key minorities” and is simply waiting to act.
This bluntly indicates that the so-called anti-corruption drive is fundamentally about political loyalty, with financial corruption serving as a pretext. Targets are struck with precision; political discipline and absolute loyalty are the real tools of intimidation against Party officials. Just days before their downfall, figures like Sun Shaocheng and Wang Xiangxi were still attending meetings and speaking about integrity. Their swift removal reflects a political standard of “zero tolerance.”
Looking at officials at vice-ministerial level and above who fell in the first month of the year, the breadth of sectors involved, the high ranks, and the key positions affected are all rare. Energy, state-owned enterprises, and party-government systems have emerged as focal points, setting the direction for this year’s “tiger hunting.” A dramatic struggle of wits and power between the Party and its own officials has already begun, and onlookers are waiting to see how it unfolds.
According to the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, besides Zhang Youxia, Liu Zhenli, Sun Shaocheng, and Wang Xiangxi, the other six centrally managed cadres investigated in January were:
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January 5: Tian Xuebin, former Party Leadership Group member and Vice Minister of Water Resources
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January 8: Li Xu, Standing Committee member and Deputy Commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps
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January 19: Gu Jun, former Deputy Party Secretary and General Manager of China National Nuclear Corporation
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January 22: Zhang Jianlong, former Party Leadership Group member of the Ministry of Natural Resources and former Party Secretary and Director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration
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January 24: Yang Hongyong, former Standing Committee member and Discipline Inspection Secretary of Harbin Electric Group and former supervisory commissioner assigned by the National Supervisory Commission
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January 27: Bao Hui, former Party Secretary and Director of the Standing Committee of the Chengdu Municipal People’s Congress
In addition, overseas independent commentators such as Cai Shenkun and Jiang Wangzheng — who had previously predicted the arrests of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli — have claimed that former Jilin Party Secretary Jing Junhai has also been detained. Meanwhile, former Xinjiang Party Secretary and Politburo member Ma Xingrui has long been rumored to be in trouble. Counting these, more than five officials at or above the full-ministerial level in the party, government, and military systems have fallen, accounting for nearly half of the total. The CCP’s party-government-military system has become a high-risk zone.△
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