The top government official in southern China’s Guangxi region has been placed under investigation over alleged corruption charges.
China experts say the handling of the case signals a shift in Beijing’s so-called anti-corruption campaign—not just imposing punishments on targeted officials, but also seizing their families’ assets—due to increasing fiscal pressure stemming from economic decline.
Lan Tianli, 62, who served as chairman of the Guangxi government since 2021, was accused of committing “serious violations of discipline and law,” according to a May 16 statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China’s top anti-corruption agency.
Lan is the second provincial-level official to be targeted in less than two months. Shanxi Governor Jin Xiangjun came under investigation in April. In China’s so-called autonomous regions, the position of government chairman is equivalent to that of a provincial governor.
Between May 9 and May 14, four bureau-level officials in Guangxi were removed from their posts, including a deputy Party chief of the region’s political and legal affairs commission and the vice mayor of Qinzhou city.
Lan’s family members have also come under scrutiny, according to Chinese state media. Financial news outlet Caixin reported that both his wife and brother are under investigation, suggesting that authorities are expanding corruption probes to include relatives in efforts to uncover concealed assets.
Political analyst Zhang Tianliang said in a recent YouTube program that the handling of Lan’s case signals a shift in Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which now appears to be entering a new phase that focuses on regional-level officials, their families’ connections, and assets.
“Lan’s case reflects a growing trend of extensive corruption investigations aimed at networks of interlinked officials. Local officials often function as interrelated cliques, where the downfall of one can implicate the entire group,” Zhang said.
He pointed out that this pattern was also evident in the previous purge of the Chinese military’s Rocket Force, when more than a dozen senior commanders were taken away for investigation, which began in the summer of 2023 and continued into the following year.
Additionally, Zhang noted that the expanded investigation into family members indicates that anti-corruption efforts are no longer solely focused on punishing individual officials but on uncovering hidden assets.
“The authorities are trying to recover as much illicit wealth as possible to ease China’s financial pressures,” he said.
Under Chinese law, officials convicted of corruption typically have all personal assets confiscated.
In one notable case, former central bank Deputy Governor Fan Yifei was sentenced in October 2024 to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes from 1993 to 2022. Authorities said he amassed nearly 400 million yuan (about $55 million) in illegal gains, and all traceable assets were seized.
Zhang’s analysis aligns closely with what Chinese dissident Yuan Hongbing previously told the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times on May 2.
Citing an insider source from the top echelons of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he revealed that the current phase of the campaign is driven more by economic goals than political ones.
“The anti-corruption push is now about raising funds to address budget shortfalls,” said Yuan, a former law professor at Peking University who is currently living in exile in Australia.
“Many local governments are already in financial trouble.
“With the United States raising tariffs and China’s exports taking a hit, the financial pressure is huge.”
After U.S. President Donald Trump announced a series of tariff increases in early April, China’s export sector experienced an immediate and severe impact.
Chinese state media cited an industry insider who claimed that 90 percent of orders at traditional exporters to the United States came to a standstill. The Epoch Times could not independently verify this claim.
Although Washington and Beijing subsequently agreed to a 90-day tariff truce on May 12, uncertainty still hangs over China’s economy, which relies heavily on exports.
Citing his source, Yuan said the CCP has confiscated vast sums from alleged corrupt officials in recent years and that the latest phase of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign has sparked widespread fear within China’s political system, as officials worry they could be the next target.
