As Beijing’s purges of its officials continue unabated, an underground market for leaked information about officials under investigation has emerged in China, with public employees allegedly selling confidential personnel information to social media operators, who then use coded posts to hint at impending personnel changes before regime authorities make them public.
A recent investigation by Banyuetan, a magazine published by China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, described a network in which insider information is circulated through paid chat groups before being repackaged into cryptic social media posts that signal an official’s imminent downfall.
According to the report, some social media influencer accounts publish the full biographies of officials shortly before they are formally announced as targets of corruption investigations, while others use homophones, nicknames, or other coded language to avoid censorship.
On July 6, 2025, one WeChat account posted the detailed résumé of Zhou Xianwang, former vice chairman of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Two days later, China’s top anti-corruption watchdog announced that Zhou was under investigation.
Turning Political Leaks Into a Business
The Banyuetan investigation said information about officials facing disciplinary action or personnel changes typically first circulates in paid private messaging groups.
Operators of the accounts allegedly obtained the information from these groups before posting subtle content publicly to attract readers into newly created paid groups.
Investigators cited by the magazine said each account is typically linked to three or four chat groups. Group administrators regularly shut down old groups and create new ones to evade regulators.
Several observers spoke to The Epoch Times regarding the report on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
A China-based scholar in constitutional law told the publication that the repeated accuracy of these predictions suggests the information comes from insiders rather than public analysis.
“They have sources,” the scholar said. “Someone inside the system is selling the information.”
He said the phenomenon demonstrates that despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) tightly controlled political system, sensitive information can still leak from within official channels before public announcements are made.
The state media report said the leaks have become commercialized through networks involving the regime’s government employees.
It cited one case in Guiyang, China, where a civil servant identified only by the surname Duan allegedly collected information about official appointments and investigations online before working with six relatives to operate nine WeChat accounts.
The accounts allegedly posted officials’ résumés to suggest they were about to be promoted or investigated, generating advertising revenue and other income.
In another case, an employee at a government bureau in western China was accused of operating a WeChat account that frequently published officials’ biographies to imply impending promotions or corruption probes.
The report repeatedly described such government insiders as “internal traitors” and called for regime authorities to trace the original sources of the leaks.
A Chinese lawyer from Shaanxi Province told The Epoch Times the emergence of such networks shows that sensitive political information has itself become a commodity.
“Information about Party personnel has been carefully packaged and sold,” the lawyer said. “Officials under investigation are part of the Party’s internal power struggles, but now civil servants, account operators, and paid chat-group administrators are all profiting from it.”
“The Party’s anti-corruption campaign has ironically created an information market,” he added.
Coded Posts
The Banyuetan report said social media users increasingly rely on subtle methods to signal politically sensitive developments without making explicit claims.
On April 24, one Douyin account posted a cartoon and text referring to Tu Yan, former chairwoman of the Guizhou Women’s Federation. Five days later, provincial disciplinary authorities announced that she was under investigation.
Other accounts produce short videos featuring officials’ photographs and résumés accompanied by subtle background music. The videos never explicitly state that an official is about to be investigated.
The constitutional law scholar said the widespread use of coded communication reflects the Chinese regime’s strict censorship of online speech.
“When a company shuts down, people may simply post a video of its empty entrance,” he said. “When they want to signal political news, they publish an official’s résumé without any comment. People have developed these methods to communicate under censorship. It reminds me of an earlier time when people had to rely on signals to pass information.”
A Product of Secrecy
A China-based online commentator told The Epoch Times the underground trade in political information is a consequence of the CCP’s monopoly over information.
Official announcements typically disclose little more than that an official is “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law,” leaving the public with few details about the underlying allegations, she said.
“People want information. They want the truth,” the commentator said. “This market exists because the regime suppresses information.”
“They used to dismiss reports that an official had fallen from power as rumors,” she added. “Now they’re admitting there are insiders leaking information. Isn’t that contradicting themselves?”
Wu Ting contributed to this report.
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