It would have been easier and less risky on the part of Chinese President Xi Jinping to just boot Zhou Yongkang from the Communist Party. But Xi chose the more difficult option because trying Zhou, considered a major catch in his anti-corruption campaign, would give the president maximum publicity.

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That's because Zhou, former head of Domestic Security, is considered a "tiger," a Chinese euphemism for a corrupt high-level official.

Arresting and throwing Zhou to jail would send the message to all Chinese public officials that Xi is not afraid to clash against high-ranking party officials, even if what he did didn't sit well with standing committee members who have retired, said Steve Tsang, head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham.

He pointed out in an email to Bloomberg that it's a risky move on the part of Xi because if he fails, party members will seek his blood. But Tsang added that the president won't let that happen because he is using his power to compel party members to publicly support the campaign.

The result is that seven provincial party committees such as those in Shanghai and Tianjin have issued statements backing the president's anti-corruption drive.

Xi is exploiting to the maximum the "tiger" status of Zhou by having him jailed in a small town named Yanggu in Shandong Province, which is where the legendary Chinese hero Wu Song won over a Chinese tiger, claimed a post on the official WeChat account of People's Daily. The post, however, was deleted immediately.

Qiao Mu, media studies professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, believes that "The battle against Zhou is [Xi's] masterpiece, and he wants every single detail to be perfect."

Financial Times raised the question if Xi is just using the anti-corruption campaign to gain more political power, pointing out that other Chinese leaders before him such as Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin and Deng Xiaoping tread the same path.

One unintended impact of the campaign, though, is the poor sales of luxury goods. A bottle of Maotai, a favorite drink at official banquets and often given as bribes to party officials, has gone down 60 percent, while Louis Vuitton reported plummeting sales of its uber expensive cognac, bags and watches

TagsZhou Yongkang, tiger