Zhou Yongkang's former top aide Ji Wenlin investigated for corruption
Ji Wenlin latest ex-aide to retired security tsar to come under investigation by anti-graft watchdog
A former right-hand man of retired public security tsar Zhou Yongkang has been placed under investigation by the Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog, in the latest sign that the net is closing around the retired political heavyweight.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) issued a brief statement last night announcing that Ji Wenlin - a deputy Hainan governor who served as a top Zhou aide for a decade - was being investigated for "serious disciplinary violations". The statement provided no additional details, although CCDI routinely uses the phrase as a euphemism for corruption.
Ji is only the latest Zhou associate to be implicated in corruption amid a wide-ranging probe centred on Zhou's former political power bases of Sichuan province, the state oil sector and the domestic security apparatus.
The corruption investigation into Zhou, a retired member of the supreme Politburo Standing Committee, is without precedent and members of the elite panel have long been considered politically untouchable.
President Xi Jinping secured party elders' consent for the highly sensitive probe in August during the secretive annual policy planning conclave at the Beidaihe resort.
Zhang Ming , a political scientist at Renmin University, said authorities still appeared to be trying to gather evidence on Zhou and it was unclear when the findings would be announced.