Ten Provinces Among Targets Of Latest Anti-Graft Inspections

Researchers will also be sent to the institute of higher research and major automaker state-owned

Wang Qishan, secretary of the CCDI, said inspectors could investigate any location, department, company or sector in which suspected severe graft. Photo: Xinhua

Anticorruption chief mainland promised zero tolerance for corruption announces the latest round of inspections of equipment.



Wang Qishan, Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said the new round was held to 10 provincial-level governments, a national body, top research institute in the mainland and a company owned state, China News Service reported.

It would be the fourth round of raids since May last year.

The inspectors fan out to Guangxi, Shanghai, Qinghai, Tibet, Zhejiang, Hebei, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Sichuan and Jiangsu. Special research projects would also be held at the State Sports General Administration, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese state-owned FAW Group.

Wang said the inspectors could investigate any location, department, company or sector in which suspected severe graft.

The promise was that two senior officials from the mainland were demoted and stripped of his party membership of serious violations of discipline, said the anti-corruption agency.

The move is unusual because officials suspected of corruption tend to be handed over to prosecutors, but observers said the investigation could continue. Zhao Zhiyong, general secretary of Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, and Zhang Tianxin, former party chief of Kunming in Yunnan, had committed "serious violations of discipline," the anti-corruption monitoring agency announced on its website yesterday.

Zhao was demoted to an entry level position, while Zhang was given a ceremonial post as deputy chief of the section - the third lowest of the bureaucracy of the mainland.

Was found to have taken advantage of their position for personal gain. Malpractice Zhang had also caused the loss of state assets, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said.

Their illicit gains were confiscated, the statement said, without elaborating. The agency did not say whether the two would be handed over to the judicial authorities.

An official of the discipline, who requested anonymity, said the two officials cooperated with the investigation and offered to return their profits, which could explain why only were degraded.