Beijing - The jailing of China's former security chief Zhou Yongkang marks the highest point of a corruption crackdown pushed by President Xi Jinping, but efforts appear to be slowing with analysts citing opposition from officials.
Sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, Zhou was once arguably China's third most powerful man, in charge of the country's police, courts and secret service when he retired in 2012.
The prosecution of such a figure shows Xi has consolidated a formidable power base in the ruling Communist party since he became its head in the same year.
But an apparent slowing in the pace of graft probes aimed at senior officials labelled by Xi as "tigers" suggests internal opposition is slowing his high-profile campaign against graft, analysts said.
As a former member of the party's elite Politburo Standing Committee, Zhou is the most senior former official to be jailed for corruption since the Communist party took power almost 70 years ago.
"There was previously a tacit agreement not to tackle anyone on the standing committee," Zhang Ming, politics professor at Beijing's Renmin University said.
"That agreement has now been broken."
The Communist party tightly controls China's court system, determining verdicts in major trials through an opaque process of backroom negotiation.
Analysts said Xi's power is constrained by retired officials such as former President Jiang Zemin, who are eager to protect their reputations and allies in the party.
Joseph Fewsmith, Chinese politics professor at Boston University, said Zhou's downfall "marks a major milestone in Xi's consolidation of power".
But he added: "(party) elders would have had to agree with the verdict".
China's Communist party has around 86 million members, and its internal disciplinary body said 232,000 were punished for graft and other reasons in 2014, up 30 percent from the previous year.
But the vast majority were at lower-levels of government.
AFP
