Ma Xingrui expelled from Politburo
China expelled Ma Xingrui, the former Communist party secretary for Xinjiang, from the Politburo on Tuesday, marking the third purge of a senior official since 2022 as President Xi Jinping deepens his anti-corruption campaign. Ma, 67, was accused of corruption, abuse of power, and trading political favours for sex, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. He was placed under investigation in April for suspected serious violations of discipline and law; he has not responded to the claims and has not been seen since the announcement.
First civilian official purged
Ma is the first civilian official in the elite political body to fall in this latest purge. Zhang Youxia, expelled in January, and He Weidong, removed in October last year, were both military officials. Joseph Torigian, an associate professor at American University and historian of Chinese elite politics, said: “This is the only civilian [within the politburo] that’s been purged. I certainly haven’t seen something like that since the purge of the Gang of Four.” He referred to the 1976 arrest of four politburo members after Mao Zedong’s death, one of the most significant reshuffles of the Chinese Communist Party’s top leadership. Torigian added: “One of the signals [of what] Xi Jinping is hoping to get out of this purge is that even politburo members, no matter who you are, can be touched by this kind of crackdown.”
Allegations and political implications
The commission accused Ma of seeking benefits for others in official appointments, improperly accepting gifts and bribes, helping relatives and associates profit from his position, and presiding over what it described as “family corruption”. Christopher Nye, a non-resident fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, noted that the official announcement contained little of the politically charged language often seen, such as “two-faced person” or “disloyalty”, yet Ma was still removed. “This suggests that Xi Jinping’s political tolerance has diminished. In the past, it seemed that you had to be seen as opposing Xi before the leadership would use the judicial system to remove you. Now, even without any obvious signs of political opposition, corruption allegations alone appear to be enough to justify such severe punishment,” Nye said.
Ma's career and rise
The announcement alleged Ma’s behaviour was “extremely serious” and accused him of failing to “restrain himself” after the CCP’s 18th National Congress in 2012. Experts said the reference was notable because it explicitly tied Ma’s alleged misconduct to the period when Xi was leader. “Before that, Xi wasn’t interested. But anything that happened after that can now become grounds for a purge,” Nye said. Ma, once one of China’s most promising political figures, rose through the ranks as an aerospace engineer and technocrat. He became the youngest doctoral supervisor at the Harbin Institute of Technology and spent more than a decade at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, overseeing major satellite launches and leading key programmes including crewed spaceflight and lunar exploration, earning him the nickname “the young marshal of the aerospace industry”. His political career accelerated in 2013, the year Xi took office. He was transferred to Guangdong province, serving as deputy party secretary and later governor. In 2021, he was appointed party secretary of Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of arbitrarily detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in “re-education” camps. During his tenure, Ma maintained a hardline stance on security and counter-terrorism, demonstrating his ability to manage a politically sensitive region.
Further investigations
Xi’s purge may not end with Ma. Several officials who worked under him have come under scrutiny. Last year, Zhang Jianhua, a former subordinate from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, was investigated and expelled for corruption. In March, Guo Yonghang, who worked under Ma in Shenzhen, was also expelled from the party.
