An underground market is flourishing on China’s tightly controlled internet as shadowy operators sell purported leaks on upcoming anti-corruption purges. Members pay entry fees up to 399 yuan ($59) to access secretive chat rooms, capitalizing on intense anxiety among officials ahead of next year’s leadership congress.
The black box surrounding the sweeping political purges overseen by Xi Jinping has long fueled intense political gossip across China. Now, that speculation has transformed into a commercial enterprise. According to a recent report from Banyuetan, a magazine published by the official Xinhua News Agency, authorities are playing an ongoing game of whack-a-mole against underground networks peddling access to groups that claim to reveal which officials are currently under scrutiny.
Chat Rooms, Cryptic Clues, and Small Entry Fees
Operators of these shadowy channels typically charge a small entry fee for basic access. Members seeking exclusive tips face higher costs, with prices fetching as much as 399 yuan ($59), according to the report. To evade detection by internet regulators, the administrators constantly shuffle members into newly created chat rooms.
The clues shared inside these groups are often deliberately cryptic. A targeted cadre’s resume might be posted without explanation, or an official’s name may be disguised using homophones. Not all the information circulating in these spaces is reliable; some accounts fabricate allegations purely to drive online traffic. Police in the southwestern province of Guizhou have already closed a number of such illicit sites, according to the official magazine report.
Yet some tips appear to originate directly from government insiders, exposing disloyalty within the political ranks. In one instance highlighted by authorities, a low-ranking Guizhou cadre obtained personnel files and teamed up with six relatives to operate nine separate WeChat accounts aimed at inflating their online follower counts.
While investigators found no indication that the tip trading is used to profit off predicting the downfalls of specific figures—a burgeoning business model seen in other parts of the world—the underground market highlights a deep-seated panic within the political apparatus. Xi’s anti-graft campaign has reached unprecedented scales. Disciplinary authorities probed a record 983,000 officials in 2025, including 181 senior officials directly managed by the central government. Both were records. Three of the 24 members appointed to the current Politburo have been ousted, and a sweeping military purge has left the world’s largest standing army with its fewest leaders since the 1970s.
“Every mid- and high-level official in China now must assume they bear some risk of being closely examined by anti-corruption authorities,” said Victor Shih, an expert on elite politics in China and professor at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s natural they would pay to obtain information about some of these potential investigations.”
Victor Shih, expert on elite politics in China and professor at the University of California, San Diego
The underground information market is thriving as the Communist Party approaches a highly sensitive political calendar. The organization is currently on a one-year countdown to next autumn’s leadership congress, an event where Xi may secure a precedent-defying fourth term and oversee a major personnel reshuffle.
Commercial Value for Investors and Officials
As officials jostle for promotions ahead of the twice-a-decade conclave, the demand for inside intelligence has surged. In theory, advanced warnings about an impending investigation allow a targeted official to prepare a defense or help an ambitious cadre cultivate more advantageous political relationships. For outside investors, early warnings that a provincial leader is facing scrutiny provide a vital window to offload assets tied to exposed companies.
“Advance knowledge of a promotion, investigation, or purge can be commercially valuable to companies trying to assess political exposure, manage government relations, and determine which official relationships remain viable,” said Neil Thomas, senior fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. “Cadres themselves also have strong incentives to understand personnel shifts that could affect their careers or political networks.”
Photo: business-standard.com
Neil Thomas, senior fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis
Speculation on Chinese social media often predates these paid groups and has occasionally proven remarkably accurate. On the morning of Feb. 10, China’s top graft buster formally announced an investigation into Yi Lianhong, a former Communist Party chief of Zhejiang province. Talk of Yi’s downfall, however, had circulated in regular chat groups for days. One WeChat article noted that platform searches for Yi had spiked sixfold two days earlier following earlier surges since April 2025, speculation likely fueled by concurrent probes into personnel linked to him.
Requests for comment sent via fax to the State Council Information Office, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and the Cyberspace Administration went unanswered.
