Tuesday’s announcement that former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang is to be investigated for corruption shows just how important the drive launched by Xi Jinping at the end of 2012 has become, with implications that stretch beyond the political power play into the economy. It is an important weapon in the simultaneous and wider reform programme with potential positive impact on the huge state sector and the investibility of its big listed companies.

Zhou is the highest-level target of a corruption investigation in the history of the People’s Republic. He heads an extensive clan network running through the internal security apparatus, the oil and gas industry and the Sichuan provincial government. The attack on him and the scope and duration of the campaign confirms the view that Xi is the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping and represents a new form of governance of the world’s second-largest economy

Xi and Wang Qishan, head of the Party Disciplinary Commission – which can pick up anybody it chooses and hold them without charge in a secret location for a six-month term (extendable) – have shown a lot of determination in their campaign. The Communist Party says 62,953 officials were punished for corruption in the first five months of this year – a 35 per cent increase over 2013. Most were ordinary cadres but 33 were central government ministers, leading provincial officials or senior executives at state companies, including four members of the Party’s Central Committee.