Mike Baker

More than 80 officials reviewed by the Journal were denounced by the CCP for simply playing the sport of golf.

The campaign has also expanded into areas that would traditionally be considered private matters.

Officials have been punished for what authorities describe as, quote, bad family values, including allowing relatives to benefit from political connections.

But beneath many of these individual cases lies a larger concern for Xi.

The Journal found that in recent years, authorities have increasingly targeted officials accused of building independent political networks.

cultivating patrons or forming what Beijing describes as factions and cliques.

One major investigation centered on a former vice minister of public security whose associates were accused of forming a political group that operated outside normal party channels.

The official was expelled from the CCP and given a suspended death sentence in September of 2022.

That focus offers perhaps the clearest indication of how Xi's campaign has evolved.

While corruption remains a major target, or at least justification, the broader objective increasingly appears to be achieving total control by eliminating any potential threats to his power.

Gies deployed inspection teams across the country, embedded disciplinary officials throughout state institutions and major state-owned enterprises, and launched repeated investigations into sectors ranging from finance and healthcare to energy and infrastructure.

The result is a political system in which officials are not merely expected to avoid corruption, they are expected to demonstrate ideological commitment and unquestioning adherence to party priorities.

Xi and CCP leaders, of course, argue that such authoritarian measures are necessary to root out corruption.

Earlier this year, Xi told party watchdogs that the fight remains difficult and that China must maintain what he called a, quote, high-pressure posture.

But critics and international observers, well, they see something much darker taking shape.

The campaign is no longer just about corruption in the traditional sense, if in fact it ever was.

It's about ensuring that every official at every level of the Chinese system understands that loyalty to Xi and the party is now the central requirement for survival.

All right, shifting to the U.S., we're learning just how seriously the Pentagon examined a potential ground mission inside Iran, with military planners developing options to seize the regime's highly enriched uranium stockpile before President Trump eventually hit the pause button.

In a CNN exclusive, sources familiar with the matter said the planning became serious enough last month that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kaine was summoned for highly sensitive briefings on the proposed operation.

The trip required him to leave a meeting of senior NATO officials in Brussels and rush back to CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Florida.