To China’s rulers, the cupidity of officials is a political crisis

IN CHINESE, AN official sacked for corruption is said to have “fallen off a horse”. The phrase rings with the age-old satisfaction of watching the high and mighty plunge face-first into mud.

Eight years after its launch by President Xi Jinping, the largest anti-corruption campaign in Chinese history remains wildly popular, notably because it has unhorsed not just light-fingered Communist Party chiefs in villages, but big-city mayors and members of the Politburo. More than 1.5m individuals have been disciplined for graft since 2012, including both “tigers and flies”—a phrase favoured by Mr Xi who took power that year. Still, a puzzle lurks within that mood of public glee at seeing the haughty-but-dirty brought low. The puzzle is identified in a thought-provoking new book, “China’s Gilded Age: The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption”, by Yuen Yuen Ang of the University of Michigan.