New probe of Maoming city's massive graft scandal

The Communist Party's top graft-busting agency recently sent dozens of disciplinary officials to Maoming , Guangdong, to reopen an investigation into a massive corruption scandal that brought down the city's former party chief and more than 300 local officials, a person familiar with the matter said.

"The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) stationed a task force of more than 70 graft-busters in Maoming last month in order to review the wide-ranging corruption case triggered by the downfall of the city's former party secretary Luo Yinguo ," the source said.

A vice-ministerial-level official, Zhou Zhenhong , was the highest-ranking official brought down by the Maoming scandal. He was the province's United Front Work Department chief and preceded Luo as Maoming's party boss.

"Zhou will probably stand trial in Henan province in the near future," said the source. "And most members of the CCDI task force are prosecutors from the central province [Henan], which may suggest that more officials, including those at high levels, will be implicated in the graft scandal."

The source said former Guangdong party secretary Wang Yang had called a halt to the investigation before the party's national congress in November and had announced a special, one-off pardon, saying no further investigation would be conducted as long as those involved surrendered all their illicit gains.

The latest investigation was a result of President Xi Jinping's pledge to crack down on corrupt officials, regardless of their seniority - targeting "big tigers" and "small flies" - the source said. If corruption was not curbed, it would pose a very real threat to the party's continued rule, Xi had warned.

Luo was arrested in February 2011 and charged with exploiting his office to receive bribes and possessing a large amount of assets from unidentified sources.