CHINA’S top anti-corruption agency will inspect some of the country’s biggest and most important state-owned enterprises, including China Investment and PetroChina, in its first major scrutiny under the Communist Party’s new leadership.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) will carry out checks on more than 30 companies, the agency said late Monday (Mar 27). It named several large state-owned businesses including China Petroleum & Chemical or Sinopec, China Everbright Group, and China Development Bank.

Anti-graft checks in China usually follow five-year cycles, with fresh rounds kicking off after the twice-a-decade party congress concludes. Last year’s 20th congress handed President Xi Jinping a norm-breaking third term as party leader, while the rest of the top ranks were stacked with Xi allies.

The latest inspections also come as China tries to mount an economic rebound this year while controlling risks in its US$60 trillion financial sector. Growth was battered last year by Covid Zero and turmoil in the property market, with gross domestic product expanding just 3 per cent.

The new probe also includes a “look back” at five financial companies that had been previously targeted in a round of anti-graft checks that began in 2021, according to the CCDI. That effort — which ensnared at least two dozen financial regulators, state-run banks, insurers and bad-debt managers — was the first systemic review of the sector since 2015, and it has probed or penalized dozens of officials in the past year or so.

Last June, Xi claimed victory in that broad probe, but this investigation and other signs suggest he’s not ready to let up on the financial sector just yet — especially when he’s seeking to restore economic growth and defuse major risks.

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Earlier this month, for example, Beijing announced sweeping changes to the financial regulatory system. That included the creation of a new body that absorbs the banking and insurance watchdog as well as some functions from the central bank. BLOOMBERG