Central discipline inspection teams have investigated several State-owned enterprises since November 2014. The inspection reports they have released have exposed chain-type corruption in many of the SOEs.

In these SOEs, the top leaders are more likely to abuse their power to pursue illegal personal interests, and they have formed a chain of corruption to trade power with money among officials and the leaders of the SOEs. Some corrupt officials collude with businessmen to establish profit alliances and seek illegal personal gains. Some subordinate officials abuse their power to provide profits to the relatives of senior officials in the name of SOE reform or market exploration, with the aim of getting a promotion in return. Some leaders of SOEs abuse their power to receive huge bribes from suppliers.

The corruption chain in SOEs has exposed loopholes in their management and supervision. The leaders of SOEs have formed a special group that not only enjoys high salaries but also huge administrative power. And SOEs have both large amounts of capital and close connections with the authorities, which provides fertile soil in which corruption chains can grow. More effective supervision of SOEs is required to break these chains of corruption.