Drive is to eradicate graft at the roots

Compared with 2014 when many corrupt senior officials, including former national security chief Zhou Yongkang, faced investigation or were prosecuted, 2015 saw fewer such cases. There are two reasons for that.

First, the two years of anti-corruption campaign before 2015 had curbed corruption to a certain extent. As a result, fewer big "tigers", or corrupt senior officials, were hunted in 2015. Unlike in 2014 when three vice-state level officials besides Zhou were put under investigation for suspected corruption, in 2015 Guo Boxiong, former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, was the only official of that level to face a probe.

Second, having successfully deterred many of the "tigers" from making money illicitly, the top leadership turned its attention to "flies", or corrupt lower-level officials. The "flies" may exercise less power, but they can be as greedy as the "tigers". And since they deal directly with ordinary people, their corrupt activities pose an even greater threat to the credit of the Party and government.