Anti-corruption drive puts Inner Mongolia official in crosshairs
Chief of United Work Front Department in Inner Mongolia investigated over claims of bribery, mistresses and large-scale nepotism
The head of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) in Inner Mongolia is under investigation for "serious disciplinary violations", state media reported yesterday.
Wang Suyi, who occupies a vice-ministerial position, has become the latest senior official to draw the Communist Party's ire in an ongoing anti-corruption campaign ordered by President Xi Jinping after he took leadership of the party in November.
Other high-ranking officials recently investigated for such violations include former deputy party chief of Sichuan Li Chuncheng, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission Liu Tienan and vice-governor of Anhui Ni Fake.
The 52-year-old official had been in his position since June 2010 at the UFWD, an agency that manages relations with non-Communist Party elites. He also became a standing committee member of Inner Mongolia's party committee.
The party's corruption crackdown has intensified since China's new leaders took office. During a four-day meeting of the all-powerful Politburo that ended on Tuesday, all of its 25 members were told by Xi not to violate party discipline, and to reflect on their own actions and correct any misbehaviour.
On Saturday, a day before the news on Wang, the National People's Congress expelled Zhou Wenbin , a former Nanchang University president, also for breaches of discipline - a euphemism for corruption.
Gu Hua , deputy editor-in-chief of the rural edition of the , wrote on his microblog yesterday that Wang was accused by mistresses of taking 100 million yuan (HK$125 million) in bribes, keeping several college students and journalists as mistresses, and for nepotism involving about 30 relatives.
"He raped three young girls, and one mother petitioned but was later beaten up and kept in a black jail on his orders," Gu wrote.
Wang graduated from the Shanxi Institute of Mining with a major in coal mining in 1982. He spent the next 19 years with the planning committee of Inner Mongolia, rising from executive secretary of its transport and energy division to its deputy head.
He became deputy mayor of Hohhot in 2001 and deputy director of the autonomous region's Development and Reform Commission in 2003. He was deputy chief and later chief of Bayannur's party committee before being appointed to his current position.
Last week, Wang received visitors from the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Hohhot and chaired a meeting on the urbanisation of major grain-producing areas, the reported.
