China’s leaders have endorsed a corruption investigation into a former security czar who was until recently one of the country’s most powerful politicians, a newspaper said yesterday, in what would make him the most senior official targeted for graft in decades.
Rumors about an investigation into Zhou Yongkang (周永康) began swirling as early as April of last year because of his close association with disgraced politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來), who became embroiled in a scandal over his wife’s murder of a British businessman and who stood trial last week for corruption and abuse of power.
Hong Kong’s English-language South China Morning Post, quoting sources “familiar with the leadership’s thinking,” said China’s current and retired leaders reached the decision to investigate Zhou, who oversaw China’s state security apparatus and served on the Politburo Standing Committee.
Photo: REUTERS
The decision was made early this month during a meeting at a seaside town, the report said.
The newspaper’s report said the investigation will focus on oilfield and property deals that have benefited Zhou and his family. The report could not be independently verified. Requests for comment were faxed to the State Council Information Office, the Cabinet’s press office, and the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department, while calls to the Ministry of Supervision rang unanswered.
It has been decades since a Politburo Standing Committee member has been prosecuted by China’s judiciary. The reported investigation into Zhou, 70, may illustrate the new leadership’s determination to exempt nobody in its fight against corruption.
However, in a political system in which graft is rampant, corruption probes into senior officials have often carried political overtones. Prosecutions of officials on graft charges are perceived as moves to ostracize those who have been defeated in factional struggles, without publicizing details of infighting that depict party leaders in a state of disunity.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique