Since becoming China’s leader in 2012, Xi Jinping has overseen a vast and ruthless anti-corruption drive in which more than a million officials have been disciplined.
A BBC study has found that more than 170 ministers and deputy minister-level officials have been sacked and many jailed under Mr Xi, accused of charges such as corruption, misconduct and violation of party discipline.
It has been described by some as a massive internal purge of opponents, on a scale not seen since the days of Mao Zedong, in whose Cultural Revolution many top officials were purged.
The most noticeable departure from tradition has been the breaking with many unwritten party conventions since Mao’s time. The prosecution of so many national-level officials has been notable – in recent decades prominent figures would usually have been quietly retired.
But in the last five years, 35 members (full and alternate) of the Chinese Communist party’s most powerful body, the Central Committee, have been disciplined. That is as many as in all the years.
Based on official data, a staggering 1.34 million officials at high and low levels – the so-called “tigers and flies” – have been brought down by corruption and disciplinary charges during President Xi’s first five years in office.
No walk of life has been spared – those felled range from village chiefs and factory managers to government ministers and generals.
Nearly 70% of the party’s ruling Central Committee members will be replaced with new faces at the current congress although in the majority of cases alleged corruption or other transgressions will not be the reason – age will be.
An unwritten party rule currently sets the retirement age at 68. -BBC
