Chinese state television is airing a documentary series on President Xi Jinping's signature anti-corruption campaign in prime time this week, unveiling new footage and salacious details of high-profile corruption cases ahead of a key Communist Party meeting.
The eight-episode series, called "Always On the Road," is being beamed daily to hundreds of millions of Chinese homes through Oct. 25 on CCTV's Channel 1. Xi, who has pledged that his battle against official graft — now into its fourth year — will never be eased, is preparing to chair the ruling party's sixth plenum next week. Two documents on strengthening party discipline will be discussed and approved at the meeting, which is slated to start Oct. 24 in Beijing.
The first episode was inter-spliced with excerpts from Xi's speeches and opened with the courtroom confession of Zhou Yongkang, the former security chief who was sentenced to life in prison in June last year. A series trailer featured previously unseen footage of two retired top commanders in the People's Liberation Army, Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong. Both appeared frail and aging, with their once dark hair turned gray. Xu died of cancer last year.