Accessibility links

Breaking News

China Starts Criminal Probe into 3 More Former Senior Officials


FILE - Ji Wenlin, then mayor of Haikou city, speaks at the opening ceremony of a yatch race in Haikou, Hainan province.
FILE - Ji Wenlin, then mayor of Haikou city, speaks at the opening ceremony of a yatch race in Haikou, Hainan province.

Chinese authorities began criminal investigations on Friday into three more former high-ranking officials over corruption allegations, all of them allies of powerful, retired domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang.

Sources have told Reuters that Zhou has been put under virtual house arrest while the ruling Communist Party investigates him for graft, though the party has made no announcement about his case.

Several of Zhou's political allies have been held in custody and questioned over corruption.

China's top prosecutor said that three of them - two former Zhou secretaries called Tan Hong and Yu Gang and a former vice governor of the southern province of Hainan called Ji Wenlin - were now formally being criminally investigated.

It added, in brief separate statements on its website, that all three were suspected of taking bribes and were in custody. No other details were provided.

It was not possible to reach any of them for comment.

Chinese media have linked all three with Zhou, though the prosecutor did not make that connection.

The prosecutor said on Monday that it had also begun criminal investigations into two other Zhou allies, former Vice Minister of Public Security Li Dongsheng and Jiang Jiemin, once the top regulator of state-owned enterprises.

As the wheels of Chinese justice can turn slowly, their trials may be a long way off. All will almost certainly be found guilty as Chinese courts are controlled by the Communist Party and will not challenge the party's allegations.

President Xi Jinping has launched a crackdown on deep-rooted graft since taking office last year, warning, like many before him, that the problem was so severe it could affect the party's ability to rule.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG