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CCDI data shows crackdown expanding

Recent reporting in both domestic State/Party and international media has highlighted political purges in both the private sector as well as in the military, alongside the long ongoing campaign within the Party and among state functionaries. New data released yesterday by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the "anti-corruption" arm of the Chinese Communist Party, now adds data showing both a continued expansion of its crackdown and a continued, or possibly further expanded, use of its secret detention system Liuzhi.

While the report is limited in scope, spanning only January to September, and is missing vital data, past data released in 2023 and 2024 allow us to extrapolate some of the missing data and compare it with prior years. Both the incomplete (Jan-Sept) and extrapolated full-year data are shown below. A few key takeaways from the new data, compared with prior years, are that:

  • The number of investigations will reach a new record high, surpassing one million for the first time,

  • Likewise, the number of punishments issued based on those will break the prior record in 2024,

  • Punishments for the two most severe forms (forms 3 and 4) are likely to surpass the prior high (2024),

  • The number of people placed into Liuzhi to reach between 35,200 and 46,100, while the prior record high was 38,000 in 2024.

Table CCDI 2025

 

The number of people placed into Liuzhi, which can now last an astonishing 16 months, rather than the prior maximum of six months, can be calculated in two ways;

  1. based on the % of those punished under form 3 and form 4 'crimes', which in 2023 was 20%, and in 2024 was 26.21%, hence the 35,200 and 46,100 figures.

  2. based on the total number of investigations, Liuzhi was used in 4.15% of investigations in 2023 and 4.33% in 2024, which would lead to an estimated Liuzhi use of 43,658 and 45,551, respectively.

To compare the new data with year-by-year data from 2018 to 2024, see our recent investigation Liuzhi system expands in use amidst reforms (Aug 16, 2025), and its related story Slew of Suicides rocks China’s Liuzhi System (Sept 2, 2025).

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