Leading figure in Chinese espionage at centre of anti-corruption investigation

The word came down yesterday from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, an arcane organisation orchestrating a massive campaign against corruption, that top spy chief Ma Jian was being investigated for graft.

It’s the latest thunderbolt that has shaken the Chinese establishment since President Xi Jinping took over the helm in November 2012 and is turning one of the world’s biggest bureaucracies on its head.

“Corruption has been reduced but it has not disappeared,” Xi told the Xinhua news agency, describing the campaign as “a matter of life or death for the party and nation”.

“Our determination to use strong remedies to cure illness will not change.

“Our courage to rid our bones of poison will not diminish. We will also continue to hold the sharp sword of anti-corruption high.”

Tigers and flies

The president’s anti-graft campaign has already snared 100,000 officials of various levels, netting low-ranking “flies” and powerful “tigers”, but there are plenty of tigers named in recent investigations.

Xi has three official titles, as president and head of the armed forces, but most important of all, he is general secretary of the Communist Party, which runs China with an iron fist.

To maintain this level of control in China, the Communist Party has to be seen to be clean and honest. Xi said the campaign showed the party was “self-purifying”.

The hatred of corruption is viewed as destablising, as something that could threaten single-party rule, and there have been regular campaigns against graft over the years.

But none has been quite so sustained as the current dragnet.

The biggest scalp to date has been Bo Xilai, the former party boss in Dalian and Chongqing who was purged last year, and recently sentenced to life in jail for corruption and abuse of power.

Previously on the fast track for the very top until he disappeared from public view in April last year, following a scandal set off by the poisoning of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, by Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, he is now sitting in jail, in disgrace.

Possibly of even greater significance is the arrest of former security czar Zhou Yongkang, who has his power base in the oil industry and was a member of the all-powerful standing committee of the politburo.

There are many euphemisms in this campaign. In this case, as in many before it, the statement said that the cadre is being investigated for “serious violation of party disciplines and law”.

Ma was said to be the mastermind behind one of China’s massive counter-espionage operations.

The investigation is said to be linked to activities involving the Founder Group, a Peking University-owned technology conglomerate, and kickbacks from securities trades.

These campaigns have traditionally faded after a few months, but this campaign is different, and last week Xi told a plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that the campaign was “effective” and “far from over”.

The campaign was fought with “a strong sense of responsibility to the future” and “a deep commitment to its missions and an awareness of the risks”.

Big fish

Xi specifically named some of the bigger catches, including Zhou, as well as other senior figures such as Xu Caihou, Ling Jihua and Su Rong.

In one of the boldest developments to date, the campaign has been widened to include the People’s Liberation Army, and some 16 senior officers have been snared for “suspected legal violations”.

The most senior is Liu Zheng, deputy head of the PLA’s general logistics department.

In a standing army of 2.3 million, logistics is an area ripe for abuse – Liu’s predecessor as deputy head of the general logistics department was Gu Junshan, who was charged with embezzlement, misuse of state funds, abuse of power and taking bribes worth nearly $100 million (€86 million).

Other top brass under investigation include the former political commissar of the air force command school, Wang Minggui; the deputy political commissar of the Tibet Military Command, Wei Jin; and the deputy commander of the Chengdu military command, Yang Jinshan.