"The political ecology in some places is so corrupt that clean officials are rounded up and hunted by those that are corrupt," said Wang Qishan, China's discipline chief, in a speech at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China. And Party and government chiefs at various levels of the administration often become the targets of the hunt.

In many local governments, even central government agencies, when corrupt officials assume leading positions, they tend to promote corrupt subordinates, even relatives, creating networks of corruption. Thus the downfall of a "tiger", or senior corrupt official, often leads to that of many smaller ones.

Wang's words echo earlier media reports that senior corrupt officials are found to have established gangs of corruption, which spoils the political ecology and makes it impossible for clean and honest officials to survive. Cleaning up the political ecology will be a main task of the anti-graft campaign in the future.