Ma Xingrui, a former Chinese Communist Party Politburo member who led China's "space rise," was stripped of party membership and public office and is set to face judicial proceedings three months after falling from power in April. As a technocrat from the aerospace sector who rose to the Politburo, the country's top leadership, he made an ignominious exit over corruption allegations, prompting analysis that President Xi Jinping's intense anti-corruption drive is expanding into the defense and aerospace fields.
According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission said on the 14th that Ma Xingrui was expelled from the Party and removed from public office. Authorities confiscated assets he had obtained illegally and handed the case to prosecutors to initiate criminal proceedings.
◇ Family corruption and sexual misconduct uncovered… "An unusually severe punishment"
According to the announcement, Ma Xingrui is accused of using his authority to grant favors in corporate management, public works contracts, and cadre appointments. In return, Ma illegally accepted large sums of wealth under his own name and those of relatives and associates, and he was found to have committed "family corruption" by allowing relatives to use his influence to reap huge benefits. Authorities said allegations of sexual misconduct involving abuse of power were also grounds for discipline, and investigators uncovered organizational and disciplinary violations, including giving false testimony during the probe and improperly interfering in personnel matters.
Overseas experts called the purge "an unusually tough measure." Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London, told The New York Times (NYT), "In the past, it had to be a truly significant case for someone who had risen to the Politburo to fall, but this practice has changed since Xi took office," calling Ma Xingrui's fall "the most severe purge carried out in the Politburo since the principles for running Chinese politics were established in the 1980s." Jean-Christophe Mittelstaedt, a professor at the University of Zurich, told Reuters, "Authorities used the highest-level phrase in saying Ma's allegations are 'extremely serious,' which is used in fewer than 1% of all corruption cases."
◇ A scientist-turned-politician… controversy over sparking the 2022 white paper protests
According to a compilation of Chinese-language media reports, Ma Xingrui is a technocrat representing China's aerospace industry. Born in 1959 in Shandong province, he graduated from Fuxin Mining College and built his career at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), serving as general manager and head of the China National Space Administration. He is also known for directing China's flagship space development projects. He led the Shenzhou 7 crewed spacecraft program, next-generation carrier rocket development, and the lunar exploration project (Chang'e).
After entering politics, Ma Xingrui moved to Guangdong province in 2013, serving as Guangdong deputy party secretary, Shenzhen party secretary, and Guangdong governor. In late 2021, he was appointed Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region party secretary, and at the 20th Party Congress the following year, he was promoted to Politburo member, entering the core of top power.
During his tenure as Xinjiang party secretary, nationwide protests were triggered by a major fire, creating political pressure. In Nov. 2022, a fire at a high-rise apartment in Urumqi, Xinjiang, killed 10 people. As criticism mounted that COVID-19 lockdowns delayed rescue efforts, "white paper protests" broke out across China, which were assessed as the largest anti-government protests since Xi took office. The Chinese government then effectively moved to scrap its COVID-19 lockdown policy.
Afterward, Ma Xingrui abruptly stepped down as Xinjiang party secretary in July last year and moved to deputy director of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, fueling speculation he had fallen from favor. He disappeared from public view from late last year and skipped the Two Sessions (the National People's Congress of China and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) in March this year, deepening suspicion. In April this year, authorities officially announced an investigation into him, and on the 14th, about three months later, confirmed the highest level of disciplinary action.
However, Ma Xingrui's fall is interpreted as a typical corruption case rather than a "political purge." In its statement, authorities said, "Ma Xingrui completely abandoned the principles of party spirit and seriously violated political standards," adding that "the nature of the matter is extremely serious and the social impact was also very large." Commenting on this, Chinese political commentator Deng Yuwen told Hong Kong's Ming Pao that "the disciplinary statement on the Ma Xingrui case did not include expressions commonly seen in cases involving senior cadres such as Zhang Youxia and He Weidong, like 'forming factions,' 'expanding political ambition,' 'disloyalty to the Party,' or 'undermining Party unity,'" interpreting the Ma case as being handled as a structural corruption case combining power, money, and family interests.