The head of China’s securities regulator on Thursday praised President Xi Jinping for “saving the Communist Party” by foiling a plot by former party heavyweights to organise a coup, the South China Morning Post reported. The chairperson of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Liu Shiyu, made the statement at while addressing a panel on the sidelines of the Communist Party’s national congress in Beijing, Liu Shiyu

Shiyu claimed that some disgraced former officials of the party wanted to seize power. “Xi addressed the cases of [politician] Bo Xilai, [former security chief] Zhou Yongkang, [former presidential aide] Ling Jihua, [late army general] Xu Caihou, [former top military officer] Guo Boxiong and [expelled member of the party’s highest decision making body] Sun Zhengcai,” Liu said. “They had high positions and great power in the party, but were hugely corrupt and plotted to usurp the party’s leadership and seize state power.”

China’s official Xinhua news agency had said on September 29 that Sun had been expelled from the Communist Party and handed over to judicial authorities for questioning as part of the investigation, the details of which were not released.

“Xi Jinping cleared up huge risks for the party and the country,” Liu said on Thursday. “The central leadership of the party with General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core saved the party, saved the military and saved the country over the past five years. Xi saved socialism,” the head of the securities watchdog added.