BEIJING - President Xi Jinping has embarked on a final round of purges ahead of a major Chinese Communist Party congress, wielding his long-running anti-corruption campaign to cement his grasp on power, analysts say.
When he became leader a decade ago, Xi vowed to root out dishonest officials, both senior tigers and low-ranking flies. More than 1.5 million officials have been punished since then, according to data from the party disciplinary body, and China has improved its ranking on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index.
The campaign is a political tool that has helped Xi defeat his rivals and the build-up to this year's congress has seen more heads roll, according to critics.
Since the beginning of this year, around 1,100 officials have been caught in the party dragnet, according to party data.
The former deputy justice minister Sun Lijun and former justice minister Fu Zhenghua are some of the people who will now spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
This final round of purges, masquerading as an anti-corruption campaign, will ensure Xi will have tighter control over personnel and policy issues at the Congress, according to Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Xi is widely expected to win a third term as party leader at the meeting, upending the succession norms in place since the 1990s.
Despite all signs that his major goal of a third term is pretty much certain, Xi is still very paranoid about his control over appointments to key decision-making bodies within the party, Lam said.