Top Communist Party paper puts Zhou Yongkang in 'traitor' class
Article says former security chief no different to executed cadres, raising spectre of death penalty
The Communist Party's top mouthpiece has likened disgraced security tsar Zhou Yongkang to past party "traitors", all of whom were executed.
An article released through People's Daily's WeChat account last night said Zhou's deeds made him "no different from a 'traitor'", a reference that prompted speculation that the former member of the innermost Politburo Standing Committee could face the death penalty.
The party announced on the weekend that a graft probe had uncovered evidence that Zhou had violated political, organisational and confidentiality rules, and was involved in corruption.
But many observers were also surprised to see Zhou accused of leaking party and state secrets.
The top penalty for leaking state secrets is seven years but a corruption conviction can bring a death sentence.
The People's Daily article cited the examples of Gu Shunzhang, the head of the party's intelligence services in the 1920s who defected to then ruling Kuomintang in the 1930s.