After nine months of anticipation, the fate of Ma Xingrui, a onetime high-flyer in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is finally clear. On April 3, Chinese authorities announced that Ma, a member of the Politburo and deputy head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, was under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervision Commission for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.

When Ma was transferred out of his role as party secretary of Xinjiang last July, the official line was only that he had been given “another assignment.” No new post was announced, and no explanation was provided. Looking back now, that long period of suspension was itself a signal. For anyone familiar with the workings of the CCP’s upper ranks, what matters most about the Ma case is not simply that another senior official has fallen. It is that it has finally broken a boundary that had long been faintly visible but never clearly crossed—going after incumbent Politburo members, the 24-person council that is China’s second-highest leadership team, after the smaller Standing Committee.

After nine months of anticipation, the fate of Ma Xingrui, a onetime high-flyer in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is finally clear. On April 3, Chinese authorities announced that Ma, a member of the Politburo and deputy head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, was under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervision Commission for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.

When Ma was transferred out of his role as party secretary of Xinjiang last July, the official line was only that he........

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