China’s top anti-corruption body has punished a former senior official based in Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong for what it called “serious disciplinary violations,” the usual euphemism for corruption.
Li Gang (李剛), who spent a decade as the deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong before being appointed to the Chinese State Council, was put on probation for one year, the Chinese Communist Party’s second-most serious disciplinary action.
In a short statement late on Monday, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said it had “approved a report on Li Gang’s serious discipline violation” for which he had been given the probation, without elaborating.
Last year, the commission sent an official to monitor the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office that oversees affairs in the former British colony.
Li is one of the most senior Chinese officials linked to Hong Kong to become ensnared in Beijing’s anti-corruption campaign.
Since 2013, about 1.34 million low-ranking officials have been punished, the commission said on Sunday, in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) nationwide drive against corruption.
In 2012, Li moved from Hong Kong to Macau soon after Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) was selected as Hong Kong’s chief executive following what was widely seen as a mud-slinging election campaign.
Leung, who surprised many in Hong Kong last year by saying he would not seek a second term, now serves as one of the vice chairmen of the largely ceremonial advisory body to Chinese National People’s Congress.
The Hong Kong Liaison Office recently welcomed a new leader, Wang Zhimin (王志民), who hails from Fujian Province, where Xi spent almost two decades climbing the political ladder.
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