Advertisement
Advertisement
The mainland China police emblem. Photo: Reuters

Two dozen senior Chinese police officers punished, some expelled, in sweeping crackdown

Two dozen senior mainland police officers have been punished for violating the law and party discipline, with some expelled from the Communist Party and facing prosecution, the Public Security Ministry said yesterday.

One officer, Zhang Genheng, former head of the police border protection force in the restive far western Xinjiang region, was investigated for abusing his position. Zhang accepted bribes in exchange for promoting and recruiting police officers, the ministry said in a statement released through the party's corruption investigation agency.

Zhang had been expelled from the party and his case would be handed over to the legal authorities for prosecution, the ministry said without elaborating.

The public security ministry's border protection force is in charge of immigration and patrols at border posts - a duty often shared with the military in restive areas like Xinjiang where Beijing says it is battling Islamist militants who it claims often cross the border into China from places like Pakistan.

Several recently detentions of officials in Xinjiang have caught the public attention, including the arrest of Zhao Xinwei, former editor-in-chief of the region's party mouthpiece.

Zhao is accused of openly opposing the authorities' key policies and questioning or openly discussing the behaviour of central and regional party leaders. Zhao is ethnic Han, as are many of the other detained officials.

Since March, at least seven senior Xinjiang officials have been detained, the majority of them ethnic Han.

Dozens of senior mainland officials have been investigated or jailed in a sweeping crackdown on deep-rooted corruption launched by President Xi Jinping after he took over the party's leadership in late 2012 and the presidency in 2013.

The national public security sector, which had long been controlled by disgraced former security tsar Zhou Yongkang and late military No3 Xu Caihou , has been a major target of Xi's corruption crackdown. Zhou was also the former elite party leader in charge of Xinjiang affairs in Beijing.

Elsewhere on the mainland, another two senior border protection officers have also been punished.

The former political commissar of Shaanxi province's border protection force has been expelled from the party and removed from his post, while the former head of Hebei province's border protection team has been demoted.

Other officials punished include the bodyguard department's deputy head and the Inner Mongolian public security bureau's former chief administrator.

Some 125 officers would also receive warnings or advice about their conduct in office, the public security ministry said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Crackdown nets dozens of senior police officers
Post