The Rampant Leadership Corruption Plaguing China and Russia

OPINION — In March 2025 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) published an unclassified report on “Wealth and Corrupt Activities of the Leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).” It was an insightful analysis of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. It was also a primer on the excessive wealth of Mr. Xi and other former and current senior officials. Indeed, it was an expose on the hypocrisy of the leaders of the CCP.

The same can be said for the Russian Federation. Former Russian anti-corruption opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in February 2024 in a Russian penal institution, documented the excessive wealth of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a few of his close associates – Sergei Shoigu, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council.

China and Russia have active anti-corruption organizations that in fact do remove some senior and many low-level officials convicted of corruption. China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspections found over 4.7 million officials guilty of corruption. The irony, however, is that little is said about the wealth of Mr. Xi or former Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao. Journalistic research going back to 2012 found that the family of Mr. Wen and the then-incoming president, Mr. Xi, had both amassed significant wealth.

As for Russia, according to Mr. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, Mr. Putin’s Party is “full of crooks and thieves.” Mr. Navalny’s 2021 You Tube film, which amassed over 100 million views in its first week, showed Mr. Putin’s extravagant palace that cost the state $1 to $1.4 billion. And Mr. Shoigu “practically openly created a corrupt network of charitable foundations through which they collected bribes from oligarchs and built palaces and vacation homes.” And then-Prime Minister Medvedev “profited from a complex business network which collected bribes by using offshore schemes and charity foundations.”

Mr. Wen’s family – mother, wife, son and siblings – controlled assets of at least $2.7 billion in 2012. Mr. Xi’s siblings, nieces and nephews reportedly held assets worth over $1 billion in business investment and real estate. And as of 2024, Mr. Xi’s family retains millions in business interests and financial institutions. It is possible – and likely – that these holdings are managed indirectly on Mr. Xi’s behalf.

According to the ODNI report: “Nearly every senior Chinese party official has moved part of their ill-gotten gains overseas for safe keeping, mostly to English-speaking countries, like America, Canada, and Australia, that enjoy the rule of law. Or to tax havens like the British Virgin Islands, Panama, or the Cayman Islands. The Panama Papers in 2016 exposed offshore companies linked to relatives of Politburo members, like Mr. Xi’s brother-in-law and Mr. Wen’s son. Hard numbers are hard to come by, but it’s known that China is hemorrhaging trillions of dollars as officials and others seek safe havens to stash their cash.” The same Panama Papers traced $2 billion to Mr. Putin, with estimates of over $200 billion available to Mr. Putin, from oligarchs and other sources, to dole out to his cronies.

A Rand June 2024 report said: “corruption in Russia is not a problem that can be eradicated by a change of policy or personnel, it is a feature of the system itself.”

Corruption is like a cancer that slowly eats away at leadership credibility. In 1858, reportedly during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Abraham Lincoln said: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Eventually, the people will demand transparency and openness from their governments and demand unwavering integrity from their leaders.

The Wall Street Journal June 7^th Peggy Noonan column – Republican Sleaze, Democratic Slump — mentioned: “Charges of influence peddling, access peddling –$TRUMP coins, real-estate deals in foreign counties, cash for dinners with the president, a pardon process involving big fees for access to those in the president’s orbit….” If this is the perception of some people, then these concerns must be addressed.

The U.S. is the “shining house on the hill.” All nations look to the U.S. for hope and freedom from tyranny, hunger, wars, injustice; where the rule of law governs and all people have the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, the U.S. is the model for other countries, especially China and Russia, where corruption is rampant and the leaders are enriching themselves.

This column by Cipher Brief Expert Ambassador Joseph DeTrani was first published in The Washington Times

Read more expert-driven national security insights, perspective and analysis in The Cipher Brief because National Security is Everyone’s Business.