NewCommunist Party sacks brother of scandal-hit top Hu Jintao aide
Ling Jihua’s brother Ling Zhengce removed as vice-president of CPPCC’s Shanxi branch
The brother of politician Ling Jihua, once a presidential ally whose son was killed in a scandalous Ferrari crash in 2012, has been sacked from his post, the Communist Party’s official news website said on Monday.
Ling Zhengce, 62, has been removed as a vice-president of the Shanxi provincial branch of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, according to a report by cpcnews.cn.
The sacking comes after the party’s central disciplinary body announced last week that he was being investigated for “serious discipline violations”, generally a euphemism for graft.
Ling Jihua’s son died in a high-speed Ferrari crash in Beijing in March 2012 that also left two women passengers seriously injured, one of whom was naked, according to media reports.
Photographs of the crash were briefly circulated online at the time, sparking questions about how the son of a government official could afford a luxury sports car worth a reported five million yuan.
The father kept his post in the ruling party’s 205-member central committee, but failed to rise to the next level – the 25-person Politburo – and was given a lower-profile job heading the party’s United Front Work Department.
The party’s leadership appointments are decided in an opaque process that analysts say depends on backroom deals between competing factions, often based on regional or family ties.