A top official with the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign language publishing house has become the target of a corruption investigation, the party’s anti-graft watchdog said in a statement on Thursday.
Qi Pingjing, 59, is being investigated for “severe disciplinary violations”, the party’s Central Discipline Inspection Commission said using party speak for an investigation into allegations of embezzlement or bribery.
Internet users were quick to find Qi’s Sina Weibo microblog, where in a post from April of last year Qi had commented on a corruption investigation into Mao Xiaoping, the party secretary and mayor of Wuyi city in Zhejiang province. At the time, Mao was charged with accepting 570,000 yuan in bribes and many internet mocked him for being a “clean official” as he had embezzled a relatively small amount of funds compared to others.
“It is evident that the people’s moral expectations have fallen to a low level,” Qi wrote in his blog, commenting on those mocking Mao.
Qi’s last public appearance in his 38-year-long career in the state-run publishing industry was on September 14 when he visited the China Periodicals Fair in Wuhan.
He worked at the China International Publishing Group, which is part of the State Council Information Office and the Communist Party’s Foreign Propaganda Office.