China’s courts prosecuted fewer officials for corruption for the first time in five years in 2016, marking a substantial shift for President Xi Jinping’s high-profile anti-corruption campaign ahead of a period of change for the Chinese Communist party’s leadership.

The number of officials expelled from the party and handed over to China’s courts for prosecution fell more than 20 per cent last year to 11,000, according to figures from the annual work report of Wang Qishan, head of the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and Mr Xi’s right-hand man.

“By and large the campaign that we have witnessed against corruption is coming to an end,” said Fu Hualing, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong. “Now it’s really about political discipline.”