The mainland Chinese coastguard’s first independent law enforcement patrol east of Taiwan on Monday – in response to the maritime border talks between Japan and the Philippines – marked an expansion of its patrolled area beyond the traditional focus. Since its launch in 2021, the China Coast Guard (CCG) has routinely patrolled in the South China Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea. In recent years, apart from routine patrols around a few Taiwan-controlled islands, the CCG has also joined the...

Disciplinary authorities in central China are investigating a county-level Communist Party chief following a coal mine gas blast that killed 82 people and left two missing. Zhao Yongjin, party secretary of Qinyuan county in Changzhi, was “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law”, the Shanxi provincial discipline inspection and supervisory commission, an anti-corruption watchdog, said on Tuesday night. The blast at the Liushenyu Coal Mine on May 22 was China’s deadliest mine...

Li Xiaohong, a former senior disciplinary official in charge of national inspection, has been placed under investigation for suspected severe disciplinary and legal violations, China’s top anti-corruption authorities said on Tuesday. The downfall of the 73-year-old veteran – known for spearheading high-level anti-corruption crackdowns and his top disciplinary roles at the securities regulator – underscores Beijing’s continued efforts to target corruption among its most senior disciplinary...

Despite repeated directives to ease the burden on local officials and curb formalism, many of China’s cadres still find themselves trapped in a frustrating cycle of working harder yet achieving fewer tangible results, according to state-linked media. Banyuetan, an influential biweekly magazine affiliated with state news agency Xinhua, outlined five symptoms of this “busier-but-emptier” phenomenon in a report published on its website on Tuesday. Beijing has long called for easing the burden of...