Such ‘corruption cases’ have been going on in China for decades, though with a little uptick in recent years. As many analyst and investigation show, however, the fate of these officials may have more likely to do with power struggle than corruption.

The purge “isn’t about corruption, it isn’t about leaking secrets, it is about a general that became too powerful”, [an analyst said in January this year after a high-ranked Chinese general was purged].

Observers say that there is indeed corruption, but it is also often a pretext “to make the party a more effective governing machine and a cudgel to remove political enemies,”

For Xi [Jinping], observers argue, corruption has become a catch-all term that encompasses not just graft, from small-time favours to huge bribes, but much more - ideological impurity, a lack of commitment to China’s ambitions and, crucially, disloyalty.

They say it triggers one of his big fears: an out-of-control party would prove disastrous for China, like it did for another major communist power, the erstwhile Soviet Union, whose fall he has often spoken about. The possibility of any such decline on his watch would threaten his power - and his legacy.

The recent purge of two military generals as cited in the linked article, has shown that,

“Official narratives after the purge of [the two Chinese military generals] Zhang and Liu make clear that their dismissals were political in nature and based on a [perceived or real] lack of loyalty to Xi and his goals” …

Xi’s circle of trusted followers is narrowing ever more to exclude the very people he relied on to consolidate his power, … but he expects this to “continue to play out until there are hardly any leaders left that aren’t complete Xi products”.