The Shadow Market for Secrets: China's Corruption Crackdown Goes Underground As Xi Jinping's anti graft purges continue to cast a long shadow over China's elite, an underground market has emerged where rumors and speculation about who will be next to fall have become a lucrative business.
This cat and mouse game between Chinese officials and the Communist Party's disciplinary authorities is fueled by a complex web of incentives and motivations that reveal just how pervasive the sense of anxiety is among China's ruling class.
Paid chat rooms and online forums, where members pay for access to groups claiming to leak details about impending investigations, have become a desperate measure for officials seeking to stay one step ahead in a game of survival.