The biggest beneficiaries of the requirement for the commission to get political clearance from above to proceed with investigations are the country’s most senior leaders. Short of civil war, there is no mechanism by which the commission can get approval to investigate any of the nine members of the Politburo’s inner circle, unless they effectively hand themselves in. As the son of a former senior leader told me: ‘It is sort of a given that they are beyond the law.’ By extension, their seniority protects their immediate family members as well, and reinforces strict taboos prohibiting public
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