In a statement after its meeting on December 13, the party’s top 25-member decision-making body, the Politburo, said “the fight against corruption has achieved a crushing (overwhelming) victory” since the 19th party congress late last year. At the same time it warned that the situation ahead was still tough and the fight must go on.

Zhuang Deshui, a specialist on clean governance at Peking University, said the “crushing victory” did not signal the end of the campaign. “‘Crushing victory’ is still not the ‘ultimate triumph’. Personally I think it’s only about 60 per cent of the way there. There will be new terms describing new goals next.” State news agency Xinhua said the change from “crushing momentum” to “victory” meant the war on corruption had turned from “the accumulation of quantity” to “the transformation of quality”.

(Comment: The “crushing victory” reference is a marked change from Xi Jinping’s assessment two years ago when he told the Politburo that the war on corruption had gained “crushing momentum”. Ten months later, at the 19th party congress, he urged the party to keep up the momentum and strive for a “crushing victory”. 

More than 1.3 million party officials at various levels, from the powerful “tigers” to low-ranking “flies”, have been caught in the campaign since it was launched in late 2012.)