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.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
‘ILLEGAL RULING’: The KMT and the TPP slammed the Constitutional Court judgement, saying it contravened the law and was trying to clear the way for a ‘green dictatorship’ The Constitutional Court yesterday ruled that amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed by the Legislative Yuan last year are unconstitutional, as they contravene due legislative process and separation of powers. The Legislative Yuan on Dec. 20 last year passed amendments stipulating that no fewer than 10 grand justices must take part in deliberations of the Constitutional Court, and at least nine grand justices must agree to declare a law unconstitutional. The Executive Yuan on Jan. 2 requested that lawmakers reconsider the bill, but the Legislative Yuan, under a combined majority of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party
RSS