China purges third Politburo member in deepening anti-graft drive

BEIJING – China has expelled Ma Xingrui, a former Politburo member, from the ruling Communist Party on corruption charges as President Xi Jinping intensifies his anti-graft campaign.

Ma, who also served as deputy head ​of the central rural work leading group, in April became the third member of the elite decision-making body to come under investigation in the current term that began in 2022. He was probed over suspected “serious violation of law and discipline” – the party’s euphemism for corruption.

Investigators found that Ma had sought benefits for others in the selection and appointment of officials and improperly arranged jobs for others, Xinhua reported.

He “connived at, failed to detect and failed to rein in serious violations of discipline and law, and suspected criminal conduct, by staff members around him”, the report said.

A probe into Guo Yonghang, Ma’s chief of staff during his tenure as the top official in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen from 2015 to 2016, was announced in March.

Guo had risen through the ranks in the southern province of Guangdong as Ma became governor of the economic powerhouse.

A number of officials in Xinjiang who received promotions after Ma became party chief of the north-western border region in late 2021 have also been probed in recent months.

Ma also illegally accepted gifts, helped relatives to purchase property at below-market prices, and engaged in exchanges involving power and money for sex, according to the report.

Ma allowed his family members to leverage his official influence to obtain huge benefits, engaging in what the authorities described as large-scale “family corruption” while illegally accepting huge sums of money and property. Xinhua did not specify the amount involved.

Ma could not be reached for comment.

The expulsion marks the latest escalation in Xi’s years-long fight to root out corruption, which has ensnared senior party, government and military officials.

In January, China opened a corruption investigation into Zhang Youxia, the military’s most senior general.

He Weidong, a former vice-chair of the Central Military Commission, was expelled from the Communist Party in October 2025.

Ma, a scientist-turned-administrator, enjoyed a meteoric rise in Chinese officialdom after becoming an executive at China’s main spacecraft and missile manufacturer, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, in the 2000s.

He worked for more than a decade in China’s state-owned aerospace industry, overseeing some of the country’s most important space programmes.

Ma’s fall from grace comes amid deepening scrutiny over China’s defence and aerospace sectors.

In February, prosecutors accused Zhang Jianhua, a former deputy director of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, of bribery and abuse of influence.

Zhang served as deputy director under Ma, who headed the defence industry regulator in 2013.

Three Chinese lawmakers with ties to the defence, aerospace and nuclear sectors were removed from their positions that same month. REUTERS