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China’s Xi Calls on Party to ‘Turn Knife Inward’ to End Corruption

China's President Xi Jinping speaks during the inauguration ceremony of Macau's new Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng as part of 20th anniversary handover celebrations, in Macau on December 20, 2019. (AFP)
China's President Xi Jinping speaks during the inauguration ceremony of Macau's new Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng as part of 20th anniversary handover celebrations, in Macau on December 20, 2019. (AFP)
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China’s Xi Calls on Party to ‘Turn Knife Inward’ to End Corruption

China's President Xi Jinping speaks during the inauguration ceremony of Macau's new Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng as part of 20th anniversary handover celebrations, in Macau on December 20, 2019. (AFP)
China's President Xi Jinping speaks during the inauguration ceremony of Macau's new Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng as part of 20th anniversary handover celebrations, in Macau on December 20, 2019. (AFP)

China's Communist Party must "turn the knife inward" to eliminate problems of discipline, including corruption, President Xi Jinping said, a new call to hunt down corrupt officials and those who corrupt them.

Since coming to power over a decade ago, Xi has cracked down on corruption involving party members, whether they were corrupt high-ranking "tigers" or lowly "flies" who failed to implement government policies.

But despite the sweeping crackdown, the party continues to be plagued by graft, particularly within the armed forces. Two former defense ministers have been purged from the party in the past two years for "serious violations of discipline", a euphemism for corruption.

The party must take counter-measures against any interest group, organization of power, or privileged class from preying on or corrupting party members, Xi warned in a speech published on Monday by Qiushi Journal, a flagship party magazine.

"As the situation and tasks facing the party change, there will inevitably be all kinds of conflicts and problems within the party," he said.

"We must have the courage to turn the knife inward and eliminate their negative impact in a timely manner to ensure that the party is always full of vigor and vitality."

Xi's call to "turn the knife inward" was part of a speech he gave at a major meeting with the party's anti-graft watchdog on Jan. 8, but had not been disclosed previously.

The excerpts published on Monday suggest a renewed and wider push to instill discipline and hunt down officials seeking personal gain and those who lead them astray.

Last month, the defense ministry disclosed that an admiral who had served on the Central Military Commission, the country's highest-level military command body, was under investigation for "serious violations of discipline".

Last year, about 610,000 party officials were punished for violating party discipline, of which 49 were officials above the vice minister or governor level, according to statistics from the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

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Report: France, Germany, UK Willing to Reinstate Sanctions on Iran 

A woman walks next to Iranian national flags in a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 August 2025. (EPA)
A woman walks next to Iranian national flags in a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 August 2025. (EPA)
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Report: France, Germany, UK Willing to Reinstate Sanctions on Iran 

A woman walks next to Iranian national flags in a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 August 2025. (EPA)
A woman walks next to Iranian national flags in a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 August 2025. (EPA)

France, Germany and Britain have told the United Nations they are ready to reinstate sanctions on Iran if it does not return to negotiations with the international community over its nuclear program, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. 

The foreign ministers of the so-called E3 group wrote to the UN on Tuesday to raise the possibility of "snapback" sanctions unless Iran takes action, the report said, citing a letter seen by the newspaper. 

"We have made it clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism," the ministers said in the letter, according to the report. 

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The British, French and German governments did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. 

The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to a 2015 nuclear deal reached with Iran - from which the United States withdrew in 2018 - that lifted sanctions on the Middle Eastern country in return for restrictions on its nuclear program. 

The E3's warning comes after "serious, frank and detailed" talks with Iran in Istanbul last month, the first face-to-face meeting since Israeli and US strikes on the country's nuclear sites in June. 

Iranian lawmaker Manouchehr Mottaki, who served as foreign minister from 2005 to 2010, said Iran's parliament "has its finger on the trigger to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)" if international sanctions were reimposed after any E3 invocation of the snapback mechanism. 

Mottaki told Iran's semi-official Defa Press that parliament would approve a bill to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal within 24 hours if the E3 invoked the snapback mechanism. 

During its 12-day war with Israel in June, Tehran said its lawmakers were preparing a bill that could push it towards exiting the treaty, ratified by Tehran in 1970. 

The treaty guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forego atomic weapons and cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.