Bosses and general are disappearing in Xi Jinping's China - at an alarming rate

In Xi Jinping 's China, the powerful are vanishing at an alarming rate.

Top generals have gone missing from state ceremonies. CEOs of major firms are suddenly unreachable. Weeks later, terse announcements reveal what many had feared: they’ve been detained, purged, or worse. The pace is accelerating-and the disappearances span both the military and the corporate elite.

TL;DR: Driving the news

• On October 17, the Communist Party expelled He Weidong , the country’s second-highest-ranking military officer, along with eight other senior generals, citing “serious violations” tied to corruption.
• He’s fall is particularly striking-he served on the Politburo and was once seen as a close Xi Jinping ally. Just days before the party’s upcoming high-level conclave, his removal sends a clear signal: No rank guarantees protection.
• According to a report in the Economist, the private sector is no safer. Yu Faxin, a prominent semiconductor scientist and defense-linked entrepreneur, was detained under an opaque and extrajudicial system known as liuzhi. Dozens of other business leaders, particularly from state-connected sectors, have also disappeared in similar fashion this year-some detained quietly, others ending up on courts’ public blacklists, their travel and financial rights abruptly revoked. In a chilling trend, several executives reportedly took their own lives after being swept up in investigations.
• Together, these crackdowns reflect a new phase in Xi Jinping’s rule-one where fear and obedience are being enforced not just within the Communist Party, but across the country’s economic and military power centers.

Why it matters

The scale of purge is staggering. As Bloomberg puts it: “Xi has ousted almost a fifth of the generals he personally promoted.” In the corporate world, the Economist found executives are disappearing at a pace of nearly one per week - and that’s just the ones whose firms are publicly listed.

China’s economic and security apparatus is being remade - not through policy, but through fear. Xi's purges aim to tighten control, but they risk chilling entrepreneurship, destabilizing military cohesion, and stoking internal elite anxiety just as the nation struggles with economic stagnation and external pressure.

The Xi doctrine
What’s driving this sudden escalation? Part of it is ideological. Since taking power in 2012, Xi Jinping has made anti-corruption his signature campaign-first in the party, then the military, and now across the economy. But as many analysts note, the current sweep isn’t about graft alone. It’s about loyalty, consolidation, and control.

Many of the individuals purged this year were Xi’s own appointees. In that sense, their downfall is less about past wrongdoing than present usefulness.

The Fourth Plenum-a major political meeting set to chart China’s next five-year plan-is just days away. Clearing out potential dissenters now gives Xi the opportunity to refill the ranks with even more loyalists.

The big picture

• Corporate crackdown: China’s liuzhi system, initially created to discipline Communist Party officials, is now ensnaring business leaders in growing numbers. Detainees are held without charges, denied lawyers, and interrogated under relentless conditions - in windowless cells, under constant surveillance, with no access to clocks or darkness, the Economist report said.
• Military purge: Xi has gutted the top ranks of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), including two defense ministers and senior officials overseeing Taiwan strategy and weapons procurement. Bloomberg reports the Central Military Commission (CMC) has shrunk to just four members - the fewest since Mao.
• Suicide epidemic: Between April and July, at least five high-profile business executives jumped to their deaths from high-rises, including Wang Linpeng, a retail magnate and once the richest man in Hubei province. Wang had just been released from liuzhi, still under surveillance.
• Debt and desperation: Local governments, strapped for cash and weighed down by debt, are resorting to what one lawyer told The Economist are “deep-sea fishing” investigations - vague accusations used to detain wealthy individuals and pressure them or their networks for confessions or assets.

Between the lines
What began as an anti-corruption campaign has metastasized into a method of regime discipline. Xi is no longer just rooting out graft - he’s reminding the entire elite that no one is untouchable.

“If a military scientist working on national defense is vulnerable to liuzhi, then no one is beyond reach,” said the Economist, referring to the arrest of Yu Faxin.

Xi’s campaign also recalls the logic of past totalitarian rulers. The Politico likens Xi’s moves to Stalin’s Great Purge- a cyclical process of elite consolidation through terror.

Zoom in: The corporate front
This wave of detentions comes as China’s economy stumbles. Growth remains sluggish after years of Covid lockdowns and regulatory crackdowns. Business sentiment is deteriorating, and executives now fear more than market losses-they fear the state.

• By September, 39 executives of listed Chinese firms had disappeared into liuzhi, surpassing 2023’s record, according to The Economist. But this is likely the tip of the iceberg: most companies in China are not publicly listed and face no requirement to disclose executive detentions.
• The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said it took action against over 60,000 people in the pharma sector and 17,000 in finance in 2024 alone.
• Courts are using China’s notorious credit blacklist - originally designed for delinquent debtors - to publicly shame failing entrepreneurs, stripping them of the ability to travel, book hotels, or ride high-speed trains. Roughly 200,000 people were added to this list in 2024, up from just 17,400 in 2019.

The result is a corporate culture in retreat. Risk-taking has been replaced by risk avoidance. Entrepreneurs are reportedly shelving new ventures, laying low, or considering relocation overseas. The fear is not hypothetical-it is personal.
Zoom in: The military front

• General He Weidong was one of Xi’s handpicked loyalists, fast-tracked to vice chair of the Central Military Commission in 2022 without the usual promotions. His disappearance in spring 2025 signaled serious internal strife.
• His ouster marks the most senior military purge since Mao. The PLA’s procurement agency has been under investigation since 2023 for leaks and kickbacks.
• He’s fellow casualty, Admiral Miao Hua, was also expelled from the Party. Like He, Miao had not been seen for months before the formal announcement.
• “Xi is cleaning house for sure,” Wen-Ti Sung of the Atlantic Council told Reuters. “The formal removal of He and Miao means he will get to appoint new members of the Central Military Commission.”

What’s next
The Communist Party’s Fourth Plenum kicks off next week - a tightly choreographed meeting where top leaders will discuss economic planning through 2030. Xi is expected to refill the vacant military seats and likely restate his commitment to “private-sector revitalization.”

But few are buying the reform talk. The dominant message is discipline, not dynamism.

There is no clear end in sight. With term limits gone and no successor in view, Xi is poised to remain in power for years to come. But the fallout of his campaigns is already visible: a military uncertain of its own chain of command, a business class retreating into caution, and a political elite that no longer trusts in immunity.

In the end, the most powerful signal Xi may be sending isn’t about corruption or discipline. It’s that no one, no matter how high they rise, is ever truly safe.
(With inputs from agencies)