The most extensive anti-corruption campaign in modern Chinese history is about to be unleashed on Shanghai, the country’s commercial capital and the stronghold of former president Jiang Zemin.
Until now, China’s most populous city has been left largely unscathed by a campaign that has been the centrepiece policy of President Xi Jinping’s 20-month-old administration and placed hundreds of thousands of officials under investigation.
However, a large taskforce from the Communist party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the body investigating allegations of crimes or wrongdoing committed by party members, has arrived in Shanghai and will remain there until the end of September.