"Under Xi's "sweep away black" campaign, province-level officials acquired wide discretion to prosecute local crimes with state backing.

'That decentralization then creates the conditions for officials to use the campaign as a pretext for arresting individuals who may not have anything to do with thuggery,' says Yuen Yuen Ang, a political science professor at the University of Michigan who has written a book about corruption in China."

Read the full article at NPR.