Senior Chinese diplomat Zhang Kunsheng sacked for corruption: foreign ministry

A senior Chinese diplomat has been sacked and put under investigation, the foreign ministry said yesterday, amid a sweeping anti-corruption campaign.

Zhang Kunsheng, 56, was no longer an assistant foreign minister because he was "suspected of violating discipline and was being investigated", the ministry said in a brief statement, using the usual euphemism for corruption. It gave no further details.

Mainland media reported that Zhang was the most senior of the nation's four assistant foreign ministers - who rank below vice-foreign ministers - and was in charge of the ministry's protocol department.

Qin Gang, the ministry's chief spokesman, had assumed the protocol position, and assistant foreign minister Liu Jianchao would take over from Qin as the chief spokesman, China News Service reported.

President Xi Jinping has cracked down on graft since assuming office two years ago, but Zhang is the first senior diplomat to be caught up in the anti-corruption campaign.

"The announcement is quite sudden because the foreign ministry is considered cleaner than other government agencies," Renmin University international relations specialist Jin Canrong said.

It was not clear which agency was in charge of the investigation and what Zhang was alleged to have done. But there was speculation that the case of Zhang, a native of Shanxi province, could be linked to the downfall of a series of Shanxi officials.