China's Communist Party has expelled Politburo member and former Xinjiang party secretary Ma Xingrui (馬興瑞) from both the party and public office, state news agency Xinhua announced Tuesday, capping a year-long fall for one of the country's most prominent aerospace technocrats.
The dual expulsion — known in Chinese political parlance as "shuangkai" (雙開) — is the party's harshest disciplinary penalty short of criminal conviction. Investigators have confiscated Ma's illicit gains and referred his case to prosecutors for criminal review, Xinhua said, meaning the 66-year-old now almost certainly faces trial.
A Year of Silence Before the Verdict
Ma's downfall followed a pattern familiar to observers of Chinese elite politics: an abrupt transfer, a long disappearance, then a corruption verdict. Beijing removed him as Xinjiang party secretary in July 2025, recalling him to the capital without announcing a new post. He then vanished from public view, fueling months of speculation about his fate.
That speculation ended in April 2026, when Xinhua confirmed Ma was under disciplinary and supervisory investigation for "serious violations of discipline and law." On June 30, the Politburo reviewed and approved the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection's report on his case, according to Tuesday's announcement. His credentials as a delegate to the 20th Party Congress have been revoked, and his party expulsion awaits formal ratification at the next Central Committee plenum.
Allegations Span Money, Sex, and Family Enrichment
The official account of Ma's misconduct is unusually detailed. According to Xinhua, he traded power for both money and sexual favors, accepted gifts and cash in violation of integrity rules, and helped relatives purchase property below market price. Investigators said he arranged jobs for others improperly, exploited his positions to benefit associates in business dealings, construction contracts, and promotions, and — together with relatives and "persons of special interest" — illegally accepted enormous sums.
The disciplinary body also accused him of presiding over "family-style corruption," allowing relatives to leverage his influence for massive profits and turning public power into a tool for private gain.
From Rocket Programs to the Politburo
Before entering provincial politics, Ma built his reputation in China's space sector — a career that earned him the nickname "aerospace young marshal" (航天少帥). A native of Shandong province, he rose through the Harbin Institute of Technology, one of China's premier defense-engineering universities, before serving as general manager of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. He later held a string of senior technology posts, including vice minister of industry and information technology, head of the China National Space Administration, and director of the state defense-industry and atomic-energy agencies.
His appointment to run Xinjiang — the tightly controlled northwestern region at the center of international criticism over Beijing's treatment of Uyghurs — made him one of the party's most powerful regional chiefs.
Military and Aerospace Elites in Xi's Crosshairs
Ma's expulsion deepens questions about the scope of President Xi Jinping's (習近平) ongoing purge of the leadership cohort he himself installed. Of the Politburo members appointed in 2022, Ma is now the third known to have come under investigation, alongside Central Military Commission vice chairmen Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and He Weidong (何衛東). All three built careers in the military or aerospace sectors — among the most sensitive domains of China's national-security apparatus — a concentration that analysts across the Taiwan Strait and beyond are watching closely for signs of deeper instability at the top of the system Xi commands.
