Update | Former oil company chief and protégé of ex-security tsar Zhou Yongkang is latest graft probe target
Jiang Jiemin, now head of agency overseeing state-owned enterprises, was a protégé at oil giant of former security tsar Zhou Yongkang
The head of a cabinet agency overseeing the 100 largest state-owned enterprises is being investigated for corruption in what appears to be a widening probe into the state oil industry - a key powerbase of former senior party leader Zhou Yongkang.
Jiang Jiemin, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) and former chairman of the country's biggest oil company, is suspected of "serious discipline violations", Xinhua reported yesterday, using the party's euphemism for graft.
The inquiry is the first against a ministerial-level official and a full member of the party's 205-strong Central Committee since a leadership reshuffle that began last November.
Jiang was appointed to the cabinet-level post in March and was previously chairman of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). The probe comes days after similar probes against four current CNPC executives were announced.
Zhou was a long-time executive of the oil company before becoming the country's security tsar and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.
Jiang, 58, is a prominent protégé of Zhou's and the investigation could provide further evidence against Zhou, who retired last November.