Chinese Officials Used Corruption Probes to Undermine Rivals Before Xi Took Power, Study Finds
• Study analyzed Chinese media coverage of corruption probes from 2000-2014 to see if party officials used it against rivals • Provincial leaders with ties to top Politburo Standing Committee members more likely to promote corruption coverage of peers • Those leaders also more likely to get promotions themselves • Study looked at era just before Xi Jinping took power - authors say can't extrapolate to current politics under Xi • Used mentions of "shuanggui" discipliary probes in regional media as proxy for political attacks between officials