Xi ‘firmly in charge’ as rivals fall in China anti-graft campaign

Al Jazeera:

Name after name, senior politician after senior politician.

Courts in China have handed down a series of high-profile corruption-related convictions in recent weeks in a final push against corruption and political disloyalty by Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the party’s once-every-five-years congress.

The intensity of Xi’s campaign is almost unmatched in the country’s history: fighting corruption has been a priority since Xi was anointed the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the leader of China’s ruling party, in 2012, and there has been no let-up as he heads for an unprecedented third term in office.

Sun Lijun, a former vice minister for public security, was given a “suspended” death sentence on September 23 – after he pleaded guilty to accepting bribes, using his political power in exchange for personal favours, and illegally possessing firearms, among other charges. In China, provisional death sentences can be commuted to a life term depending on the convict’s behaviour in the first two years after the verdict.

Sun’s conviction marks the possible end of an intensified anti-corruption campaign that targeted Sun’s “political clique”. It involved high-ranking officials such as Fu Zhenghua, former minister of justice, Wang Like, the former head of the political and legal affairs in eastern Jiangsu province, and three former police chiefs. Liu Yanping, the former chief of the disciplinary inspection commission, has also been indicted on corruption charges.

As Xi prepares for the twice-a-decade congress, which starts on October 16, the position of the man whose appointment was heralded by a headline-grabbing murder-corruption scandal involving his main adversary Bo Xilai, is stronger than ever.