Huang Qifan, China’s political tumbler, falls after a decade of close corruption calls

For a decade, former Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan stood out as a political survivor while colleague after close colleague fell in China’s far-reaching anti-corruption campaign.

Throughout that time, including his seven years as the megacity’s mayor from 2009 to 2016, Huang was seen as a “tumbler” in Chinese politics – a weighted doll that wobbles but never falls over.

The nickname was well-deserved – he served under six municipal Communist Party secretaries, watching two of them – Bo Xilai and...