A former aide to China’s retired domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang (周永康) was sacked yesterday after authorities opened a corruption probe, the latest move targeting associates of Zhou, who is also under investigation for graft.
Guo Yongxiang (郭永祥) has been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and stripped of his public office for “serious law and discipline violations,” the party’s anti-graft watchdog said in an announcement on its Web site.
Guo worked together with Zhou for at least 12 years, according to both their official resumes, including in Sichuan Province where Zhou was party boss. Guo eventually rose to be a vice provincial governor.
The investigation found that Guo had “exacted profits for others with his power, taken a great amount of bribes and gifts himself or through the hands of his son,” the graft watchdog said in a brief statement.
“Guo also sought profits for his son’s businesses with his power, and was morally corrupt,” it added. “Guo has seriously violated the law and party discipline.”
His illegally accrued assets will be seized and he will be handed over to judicial bodies for prosecution, it said.
Guo had been head of a Sichuan province literary organization when the party began investigating him last year.
It was not possible to reach him for comment and it is not clear if he has a lawyer.
Sources have said that Zhou has been put under virtual house arrest, though the party has yet to make an announcement about his case.
Several of Zhou’s political allies have been held in custody and questioned over corruption, including former Chinese vice minister of public security Li Dongsheng (李東生) and Jiang Jiemin (蔣潔敏), who was the top regulator of state-owned enterprises for just five months until September last year.
Zhou retired in 2012.
He was last seen at an alumni celebration at the China University of Petroleum on Oct. 1 last year.
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