For more than a decade, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping has used a storm of corruption probes and loyalty campaigns to bring the country’s officials to heel.
十多年来，中国领导人习近平一直通过一波又一波的反腐调查和忠诚教育运动来约束该国的官员。
Now, as Mr. Xi, 73, prepares to claim five more years in power, he is complaining that some officials are still disloyal, apathetic and corrupt, and has said that tougher measures are needed.
如今，73岁的习近平准备争取再执政五年，他抱怨一些官员依然不忠诚、麻木不仁且腐败，并表示需要采取更严厉的措施。
The relentlessness of Mr. Xi’s campaign for control was on display this month when the Communist Party announced an investigation into Huang Qifan, the former mayor of Chongqing, a city in southwest China. Mr. Huang remained prominent after leaving office and had survived the downfall of several party officials under whom he had served. Such investigations almost always culminate with the imprisonment of the official.
本月，中国共产党宣布对中国西南部城市重庆的前市长黄奇帆展开调查，这充分展现了习近平巩固权力的行动之无情。黄奇帆曾历经数位曾任其上司的党内官员倒台而安然无恙，卸任后也仍然保持活跃，地位显赫。这类调查几乎总是以官员被判刑入狱而告终。
The news about Mr. Huang came just before the party’s elite Central Committee prepared to gather this week in Beijing. During a four-day meeting, the group of several hundred officials is expected to lay the groundwork for Mr. Xi to secure a fourth term as party leader next year and also approve strict rules for scrutinizing officials.
黄奇帆的新闻传出之际，正值党的精英机构中央委员会准备本周在北京举行会议。在为期四天的会议期间，这个由数百名官员组成的群体预计将为习近平明年开启第四个党领导人任期奠定基础，并批准用于审查官员的严格规则。
The party is preparing for its next party congress, a gathering that takes place once every five years to announce a leadership overhaul. During that congress, in late 2027, Mr. Xi must appoint a new cohort of younger officials to work under him. That backdrop might explain his renewed fixation on enforcing obedience, experts say.
党正在为其下一届全国代表大会做准备，每五年举行一次的大会旨在宣布领导层的改组。将在2027年晚些时候举行的这次大会上，习近平必须任命一批新的年轻官员在他麾下工作。专家表示，这一背景或许可以解释他为何重新执着于强化服从。
“What does Xi want his legacy to be? I think first and foremost, it is a stronger Communist Party, perhaps even more than a stronger China,” said Neil Thomas, a senior fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “The first is the foremost prerequisite for the latter as far as he’s concerned.”
“习近平希望留下怎样的遗产？我认为，首要的是一个更强大的共产党，甚至可能比一个更强大的中国更为重要，”亚洲协会政策研究所中国政治高级研究员牛犇(Neil Thomas)表示。“在他看来，前者是后者的首要前提。”
2016年，时任重庆市市长黄奇帆在北京。在接受调查之前，作为一名退休官员，他有超乎寻常的公众知名度，经常发表演讲并撰写书籍。Another five-year term would cement Mr. Xi’s status as China’s most dominant leader in decades, particularly because he has no obvious successor.
再连任五年将巩固习近平作为中国数十年来最具主导地位的领导人这一地位，尤其是因为他没有明确的接班人。
But Mr. Xi “remains perpetually disappointed by the people expected to carry out his wishes,” Mr. Thomas and his colleagues wrote in a preview of the party meeting.
但是，牛犇和他的同事在一份关于这次党内会议的前瞻中写道，习近平“对那些本应执行其意愿的人始终感到失望”。
The current Central Committee had 376 members when it formed at the last party congress in 2022. But Mr. Xi’s purges have taken a toll. At the committee meeting last year, attendance was down to 315 officials, and the number this week could fall to around 300 or fewer, given the officials who have been expelled, investigated or disappeared.
现届中央委员会在2022年上届党代会成立时共有376名成员。但习近平的清洗行动造成了严重减员。在去年的委员会会议上，出席人数降至315名官员。考虑到已经被开除、受调查或失踪的官员，本周的出席人数可能会降至约300人甚至更少。
Mr. Xi said in a speech early this year, which was published this month, that too many officials fail to faithfully implement orders and instead feign obedience. Some were “two-faced,” concealing their disdain for party rules and values behind a mask of loyalty, he said. Likening corrupt officials to diseased trees, he said, the party should “pull out the sick trees that should be pulled out, chop down the ones that should be chopped down.”
习近平在今年早些时候的一篇讲话中（该讲话于本月发表）表示，有太多的官员未能忠实地执行命令，反而假装顺从。他说，有些人是“两面人”，在忠诚的面具背后隐藏着对党的规则和价值观的蔑视。他将腐败官员比作有病的树木，表示党应该做到“‘病树’该拔就拔、该伐就伐”。
A big part of Mr. Xi’s agenda is the grinding chore of running the Communist Party with its 101 million members, many of them officials. That party apparatus is how Mr. Xi oversees the world’s second biggest economy and controls 1.4 billion people. Since taking power in 2012 he has revived his party’s power by extending its reach into factories, villages, schools and virtually every corner of society.
习近平议程中的很大一部分是管理拥有1.01亿党员的中国共产党的繁重日常工作，这些党员中很多是官员。正是通过这套党内机制，习近平得以管理世界第二大经济体并统治14亿人口。自2012年上台以来，他将党的触角延伸到工厂、村庄、学校以及社会的几乎每一个角落，重塑了党的权威。
The Revolution of the Self
自我革命
Mr. Xi appears to believe that the problems in Chinese officialdom are rooted in a lack of discipline and ideological backbone. His remedy for that is “self-revolution,” a program of constant inspections, self-evaluations and criticism sessions intended to keep cadres on their toes.
习近平似乎认为，中国官场的诸多问题根源于纪律松懈和思想软弱。他对此给出的药方是“自我革命”，这是一项由持续检查、自我评估和批判会议组成的计划，旨在让干部保持警觉。
“Self-revolution” is not slowing. In 2023, inspectors punished 49 officials in provincial or ministerial-level posts and 24,000 in county-level posts; last year, the corresponding numbers were 69 and 35,000, according to official statistics.
“自我革命”并没有放缓。根据官方数据，2023年，检查人员惩处了49名省部级干部和2.4万名县处级干部；而去年，对应的数字分别为69人和3.5万人。
Mr. Xi’s purges have lately been most intense in the military. Early this year, China’s topmost general, Zhang Youxia, was detained and accused of corruption and disloyalty. Since 2022, around 100 senior officers have been put under investigation, or simply disappeared, likely under investigation.
习近平的整肃行动最近在军队中最为剧烈。今年早些时候，中国最高级别的将领张又侠被拘留，并被指控腐败和不忠。自2022年以来，已有约100名高级军官接受调查，或直接失踪，很可能正在接受调查。
2023年，张又侠（中）在当选中央军委副主席后宣誓就职。张又侠随后被拘留，并被指控贪腐。“The anticorruption campaign is not a campaign anymore, because it’s become so normalized,” said Ling Li, a lecturer in Chinese politics and law at the University of Vienna. “On the one hand, it has made the carrot for officials smaller because of the reduced opportunities for corruption. On the other hand, the sticks are getting heavier.”
“反腐运动已经不再是一场临时运动了，因为它已经变得如此常态化，”维也纳大学中国政治与法律讲师李玲表示。“一方面，由于腐败机会的减少，给官员的‘胡萝卜’变小了。另一方面，‘大棒’正变得越来越重。”
The scrutiny of officials is likely to grow ahead of the party congress next year. China’s economy has slowed under the weight of a prolonged housing crash, which has also devastated the revenues of local governments that long relied on land sales. Mr. Xi wants to ensure that despite all that pain, officials stay committed to his rule and to his agenda of building China into a technologically advanced superpower.
在明年的党代会召开之前，对官员的审查可能会进一步加剧。由于长期的房地产危机，中国经济有所放缓，也重创了长期依赖土地出让收入的地方政府财政。习近平希望确保，尽管面临种种困难，官员们仍能坚定致力于他的领导，以及将中国建设成为技术先进的超级大国的议程。
“History shows that in times of difficulty, divergent voices may emerge when the party congress congregates,” Ms. Li said. “An injection of fear will make consensus easier to achieve.”
“历史表明，在困难时期，党代会召开时可能会出现不同的声音，”李玲说。“注入恐惧感将使达成共识变得更加容易。”
One jolt of fear may come from the downfall of Mr. Huang, the former Chongqing mayor.
前重庆市长黄奇帆的落马可能会引发一阵恐慌。
Mr. Huang, 74, retired from major official posts eight years ago, but he enjoyed an outsize public profile, making speeches and writing books on economic issues. But then investigators announced that he was under investigation for “severe violations of party discipline and the law.” Last week, the party also said Xia Linmao, a deputy mayor of Beijing, was under investigation.
74岁的黄奇帆在八年前就从主要公职岗位上退休，但他保持着超乎寻常的高调公众形象，经常就经济问题发表演讲并撰写书籍。但随后调查人员宣布他因“严重违纪违法”正在接受调查。上周，党还宣布北京市副市长夏林茂正在接受调查。
Is a Former Anti-Graft Enforcer in Trouble?
前反腐高官是否陷入麻烦？
Other recent moves by party investigators suggest that Mr. Xi’s suspicions may extend even higher, perhaps to Wang Qishan, 78, the former leader of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Mr. Wang oversaw Mr. Xi’s anticorruption campaign in its first phase, and is now retired.
党内调查人员最近的其他举措表明，习近平的怀疑可能延伸到了更高的层级，甚至可能包括78岁的前中央纪律检查委员会书记王岐山。王岐山曾负责监督习近平反腐行动的第一阶段工作，现已退休。
Several of Mr. Wang’s longtime aides — including Zhou Liang, a financial official, and Li Xiaohong, a disciplinary official — have been detained on suspicion of corruption. Dong Hong, another former secretary of Mr. Wang, was imprisoned on corruption charges in 2022. This year, two of Mr. Wang’s former subordinates were demoted from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, suggesting that they too might be under a cloud.
王岐山的几位长期助手已因涉嫌腐败被拘留，包括金融领域官员周亮和纪检官员黎晓宏。王岐山的另一位前秘书董宏于2022年因腐败指控被判刑。今年，王岐山的两名前下属被降职，不再担任中央纪律检查委员会的职务，这表明他们可能也处于阴影之下。
The reasons that Mr. Wang’s aides have become targets are not clear, and Mr. Wang himself has not been accused of wrongdoing. But the cases have prompted speculation that Mr. Xi is wary of the influence that retired officials could retain through their networks and protégés.
王岐山的助手成为目标的具体原因尚不清楚，王岐山本人也没有被指控有违法行为。但这些案件引发了人们的猜测，认为习近平对于退休官员可能通过其网络和门生保留的影响力保持警惕。
2023年，习近平在北京与王岐山握手。王岐山曾负责监督习近平反腐败运动的第一阶段工作，但王岐山本人的一些长期助手后来却成为纪律检查机关的调查对象。“I could see Xi thinking that Wang, even though he did so much of Xi’s hatchet work for him, stands as one of the few people with the wherewithal and maybe the sheer chutzpah to be a pain for Xi,” said Jonathan Czin, a researcher on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution who formerly worked in the Central Intelligence Agency. “It’s about Xi’s mind-set and his perception of risk.”
“我能理解习近平的想法，王岐山即使为他做了那么多脏活累活，但他依然是少数有能力、甚至有足够胆量给习近平制造麻烦的人之一，”布鲁金斯学会研究中国政治的研究员、曾在美国中央情报局工作过的秦江南(Jonathan Czin)表示。“这关乎习近平的心态以及他对风险的认知。”
The downside of the seemingly endless scrutiny is that Mr. Xi may find it harder to ensure millions of junior officials remain motivated. A recent study has found that officials are often afraid of taking risks. They are sometimes flat-out demoralized.
这种看似无休止的审查带来的负面效应在于，习近平可能会发现，越来越难确保数以百万计基层官员保持工作积极性。最近的一项研究发现，官员们往往不敢承担风险。他们有时感到彻底丧失干劲。
“Local governments, especially those in rural areas, don’t have the capabilities and resources to meet all the demands that cascade down from the center,” said Benjamin Hillman, a professor at the Australian National University who was a coauthor of the study. “Local officials sometimes have to fake it.”
“地方政府——尤其是农村地区的地方政府——没有能力和资源去满足中央层层下达的所有要求，”该研究的合著者、澳大利亚国立大学教授本杰明·希尔曼表示。“地方官员有时不得不弄虚作假。”
