Two aides of former security chief Zhou Yongkang to stand trial

Two former top aides of fallen security chief Zhou Yongkang will face trial in Hubei courts for corruption, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said yesterday.

Wang Yongchun , former deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation, will be tried in the Xiangyang Intermediate People's Court for allegedly taking bribes, amassing assets of unexplained origin and abuse of power. Like Zhou, Wang spent decades in the oil industry. He was detained in August 2013 and expelled from the Communist Party in June 2014.

Another Zhou associate, former Sichuan deputy governor Guo Yongxiang , will be tried in the Yichang Intermediate People's Court for allegedly taking bribes and not being able account for assets.

In 2000, a year after Zhou became Sichuan's party chief, Guo was made deputy secretary general of the provincial party committee.

Xinhua earlier described Wang and Guo as members of the "oil faction" and the "secretary faction", identifying factions within the party for the first time since President Xi Jinping took power.

The announcement yesterday came as the reported that whistle-blower Shen Yong, who had publicly accused former Sichuan deputy party chief Li Chuncheng of corruption, was detained by police at a provincial people's political consultative conference in Jinniu district in Chengdu last month after proposing that the meeting's communique include a line about the need to "clear Jinniu district of Li's influence".