Inquiry into disgraced Ling Jihua ‘linked more to his own problems than son’s fatal Ferrari crash’

China's corruption investigation into Ling Jihua linked more to his own problems rather than fallout from scandal of Ferrari car crash in which son died, says CPPCC spokesman Lu Xinhua

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The corruption investigation into Ling Jihua, a former vice-chairman of the CPPCC and one-time top aide of former president Hu Jintao, is still going on. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:45pm, 6 Mar 2015Updated: 1:56am, 7 Mar 2015

A senior mainland official yesterday became the first to publicly link a deadly Ferrari crash in the capital three years ago to a one-time aide to former president Hu Jintao.

How the South China Morning Post reported the story

But the crash, which killed the son of former rising political star Ling Jihua , was not the main cause of Ling's downfall, according to Lu Xinhua, the plenum spokesman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body.

"[The Ferrari car crash] is not the most important issue of the investigation; it is related more to his personal problems," Lu said.

Ling's case was in the hands of prosecutors and would proceed to the courts, Lu added.

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The CPPCC announced in December that Ling, the body's former vice-chairman, was under investigation for "suspected serious disciplinary violations", a term that usually refers to corruption.

There was speculation that Ling had fallen foul of a power struggle in the Communist Party, with state media running a series of articles warning officials against forming factions.