Graft connections between Zhou Yongkang secretaries picked out by media sources
Detained officials with links to former security tsar part of a network of graft, newspapers say
The media on the mainland have run extensive reports hinting at the links between several top officials under investigation for corruption and the former security tsar Zhou Yongkang.
The reports do not directly implicate Zhou, but suggest his close allies were involved in an organised web of graft.
It's no longer an individual graft case, but senior-level, systematic and organised corruption
The articles came after the government's anti-corruption watchdog announced this week that a deputy governor of Hainan, Ji Wenlin, had been accused of graft. Ji was Zhou's secretary for a decade.
Central authorities began briefing officials last month on the findings of the corruption case centred on Zhou, but the investigation has never been acknowledged publicly by the government or covered openly in the mainland media.
The China Business Journal ran an article highlighting how Ji's career crossed with Guo Yongxiang, a former deputy governor of Sichuan. Guo is another former Zhou secretary under investigation for corruption and the newspaper hinted of a wider conspiracy.
"A 'secretary gang' falls," the article said. "As the anti-graft net continues to widen, members of the 'secretary gang' closely tied to each other have finally been caught one by one."