China expels Politburo member Ma Xingrui in Xi’s anti-corruption campaign

BEIJING (AP) — A senior official has been expelled from China’s ruling Communist Party, state media said Tuesday, the latest to fall in Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s long-running anti-corruption campaign.

Ma Xingrui was a member of the Politburo, the 24-member body made up of top party leaders. State media referred to him as a former member in their latest reports.

He is one of three members of the current Politburo, whose term runs from 2022 to 2027, to be purged in the anti-corruption campaign. The other two are military generals. Analysts see the campaign as an important tool to enforce loyalty to Xi as well as root out corruption.

Ma’s downfall was confirmed in April, when it was announced he was under investigation for severe violations of party discipline and national laws, without details. Tuesday’s reports said that party authorities had concluded that he committed a long list of violations ranging from accepting gifts and money to engaging in “power-for-sex” and “power-for-money” transactions.

Other violations listed included using his position to secure contracts and job promotions for others and ignoring violations and alleged criminal conduct by his close members of his staff.

Ma, who is 66, was the Communist Party chief of the Xinjiang region until 2025, and before that the governor of Guangdong province, the manufacturing powerhouse bordering Hong Kong in China’s south. In the Chinese system, the party leader outranks the governor in a province or region. An engineer by training, Ma worked in the aerospace industry before joining local government.

Separately, the party’s anti-corruption body announced Tuesday that it was investigating the director of mine safety in Shanxi province after a deadly coal mine explosion in May.