Underground market for Chinese official data booms amid anti-corruption crackdown
Geopolitics
An underground market for data on Chinese officials who may be under investigation is booming amid President Xi Jinping's expanding anti-corruption campaign, with nearly 1 million officials scrutinized last year. Banyuetan magazine, affiliated with Xinhua News Agency, reported that secret online groups charge fees as high as 399 yuan, or about 59 dollars, for access to information on officials who may be investigated or removed from their posts. Group administrators use vague methods to evade detection, such as posting work histories without further explanation or using homophones instead of real names. Although some of the information is unreliable and police in Guizhou province have shut down several such channels, there are signs that some data may have leaked from government officials themselves. Three of the 24 current members of the Communist Party of China Politburo have already been removed from office, while a sweeping purge in the military has left the world's largest standing army with its fewest senior leaders since the 1970s. Scholars point out that almost every mid-level and senior Chinese official must see themselves as at risk, and are therefore willing to pay for information about possible investigations. Such advance information also has commercial value for businesses and investors in assessing political risk.
