BEIJING – Anti-graft authorities in China today announced that they are investigating a former justice minister, the latest senior cadre to be drawn into Beijing’s sweeping corruption drive.
A growing number of top Communist figures have been caught up in President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which critics said has also served as a way to remove the leader’s political enemies since he came to power in 2013.
Fu Zhenghua, who has held key roles in Beijing, including justice minister and head of the Public Security Bureau, is being investigated for “serious violation of discipline and law”, said a statement from authorities.
Once Beijing’s top cop, Fu is thought to have led the corruption investigation into Zhou Yongkang, the former security czar jailed in 2015 in one of the campaign’s most high-profile cases.
But the ex-minister is now facing his own investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) anti-graft body.
Fu is currently deputy director of the social and legal affairs committee on the standing committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a largely ceremonial advisory body.
CDDI’s statement comes just days after former deputy public security minister Sun Lijun, who oversaw security in Hong Kong during months of unrest, was expelled from the Communist Party for corruption.
He is accused of keeping a personal stash of confidential documents, absconding from his pandemic-fighting duties, and paying for sex, and will face further investigation and prosecution.
More than a million officials have been punished under the anti-corruption campaign, which has been a cornerstone of Xi’s tenure.
Last month, the former head of Chinese liquor firm Kweichow Moutai, the world’s most valuable spirits company, was jailed for life for taking more than US$17 million (RM71.2 million) in bribes.
Last year, the former head of China’s insurance regulator was sentenced to 11 years in prison, also on charges of pocketing bribes. – AFP, October 2, 2021
