China’s top graft-buster says two party officials absent from key meeting ‘accountable for systemic corruption’
Wang Qishan did not name the two officials, but their absence coincided with sacking of civil affairs ministry leaders
China’s top graft-buster Wang Qishan has revealed that two unnamed senior Communist Party members absent from a key meeting in October were held accountable after their department was found to have carried out “systemic corruption”.
The timing of their absence coincided with the sacking of Li Liguo, the Minister of Civil Affairs and the appointment of a former deputy anti-graft chief as the new head of the ministry.
As a full member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, Li should have attended the party’s sixth plenary session, which ended in late October.
However, he was not seen in China Central Television’s news footage of the closing ceremony of the plenum.
Mainland media outlet Caixin reported in mid-November that a Central Commission for Discipline Inspection member Qu Shuhui – a long-time discipline chief at the civil affairs ministry until transferring to the State Ethnic Affairs Commission this May – had already left the Central Commission before last month.