bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Choi Chi-yuk

Two top officials who oversaw civil affairs are being investigated by on suspicion of severe violations of Communist Party discipline, sources say.
References to violating party discipline are usually a euphemism for corruption.
“Both Li Liguo (李立國) and Dou Yupei were recently taken away by party disciplinary and supervisory personnel,” a source close to the Civil Affairs Ministry quoted a staff briefing as saying in the last few days .
It is rare for both the head of a ministerial-level body and one of his or her deputies to be removed at the same time.

As a full member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, Civil Affairs Minister Li should have attended the party’s sixth plenary session, which ended late last month.
There has been widespread speculation that the 63-year-old might have fallen foul of the authorities after he was not seen in CCTV news footage of the closing ceremony of the plenum.
Some said Li might have been implicated in the political turmoil over massive election rigging of top legislators in the northeastern province of Liaoning, which brought down dozens of top-tier members of the National People’s Congress and deputies to provincial-level legislatures earlier this year.
Chinese PLA veterans’ protests for pensions pose test for President Xi Jinping’s modernisation plans
Li spent more than two decades in the rust-belt province, before he became secretary general of the Tibet autonomous region in 1993.
He was named head of the civil affairs ministry in 2010, after leaving Tibet to become deputy head of the ministry in 2003.

Others suggested that Li, along with his deputy Dou, was held responsible for and sacked over a massive protest involving hundreds of veterans who surrounded the defence ministry’s headquarters in the heart of Beijing early last month.
One of the duties of the Civil Affairs Ministry is arranging jobs for tens of thousands of veterans across the country.
Beijing to change law to punish any person or group that harms image of Red Cross Society of China
Dou has worked in the Civil Affairs Ministry for more than 34 years. He was promoted to a vice-minister in late 2005 when he was 48.
The 59-year-old held another position concurrently as a deputy head of the Red Cross Society of China since 2009.
There is speculation that Dou might have been involved in corruption related to the scandal-plagued charity.


China’s civil affairs minister and deputy ‘under investigation’

Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo speaks at a press conference during the National People's Congress meeting in Beijing in March 2011. On the left is Vice-Minister Dou Yupei, and right, Vice-Minister Jiang Li. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Li Liguo, Civil Affairs Minister, at the press conference at the NPC media center Wednesday, Mar. 13, 2013. 13MAR13 Photo by Simon Song

Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Dou Yupei.

News

China

Politics

Speculation Li Liguo faces a corruption inquiry after minister not seen at key party meeting
