A second corruption scandal has hit the northern port city Tianjin this month, with the city's Higher Court president reportedly under investigation by central government graft busters.
Zhang Baifeng, 64, is being investigated by officials from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) - the Communist Party's top anti-corruption body - for alleged bribery and mistress-related scandals, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights & Democracy said yesterday.
But he is yet to be placed under shuanggui - a party disciplinary measure which usually puts suspect party members under house arrest and makes them confess their wrongdoings.
Mr Zhang became Higher Court president in 1993 after serving on the city government's political and law committee since 1987.
Last Monday the chairman of Tianjin's Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference - the advisory body to the city's people's congress - killed himself after returning from a talk with CCDI officials.
Song Pingshun , 61, who held a rank equivalent to a cabinet minister, was one of the highest-ranking officials to have committed suicide in the past three decades.
He once served as the city's vice-mayor, police chief and secretary of the Communist Party's Tianjin Political and Law Committee, which oversees police, prosecutors and judges.