Reuters
Li Xi gets graft-busting role on China’s new Standing Committee
Li Xi, the Communist Party chief of the economic powerhouse Guangdong province, assumed two new titles on Sunday when he was elevated to the elite Politburo Standing Committee and put in charge of the party’s influential graft-busting body. While Li, 66, is not known to have worked directly with Xi Jinping during his career – unlike the other three new members named on Sunday to the Standing Committee – he is nonetheless viewed by analysts as having gained Xi’s trust to secure such a sensitive role. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), which roots out and punishes corruption within the 97 million-member party, is extremely powerful and fighting corruption has been a signature tool of Xi’s rule since he became China’s supreme leader a decade ago.