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SCMP Reporter

Zhou Yongkang, China's former security chief and Politburo member, has been stripped of his Communist Party membership and will face prosecution, Xinhua reported early on Saturday, citing the Politburo of the party’s Central Committee.
Zhou, 72, was accused of a series of serious violations of “party and organisational discipline and secrecy”, ranging from taking bribes to leaking party and state secrets and “exchanging power and money for sex”.
The report said he took bribes and abused his post for the benefit of others, including mistresses, relatives and friends.
He was also accused of causing heavy losses of state-owned assets.
The announcement was the first time that allegations that Zhou leaked state secrets had been reported.
The decision on Friday to expel Zhou and hand his case over to prosecutors came after the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection carried out an investigation into Zhou earlier this year, Xinhua reported.

	TIMELINE: Zhou Yongkang's fall from grace
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate had approved Zhou’s arrest, the report said.
In a commentary published at midnight, party mouthpiece People’s Daily vowed to firmly fight corruption to uphold party discipline.
Xinhua said officials of the party Central Committee's political bureau on December 1 last year were presented a report from the Chinese anti-graft watchdog on Zhou's possible infractions.
The committee's political bureau was updated about the case again on July 29 this year, and decided to file for an investigation, Xinhua reported.

“His actions completely go against the nature and goals of the Communist Party, and have damaged the image of the party,” the Daily said. “Firmly investigating Zhou shows our zero-tolerance approach to corruption.”
The party announced in July that Zhou, who retired from the Politburo Standing Committee in 2012, was officially investigated for “serious disciplinary violations” – a euphemism for corruption.
One of the most influential politicians of the last decade, Zhou has been embroiled om the biggest graft scandal since the party took power in 1949. He was last seen in public more than a year ago.
It is also a landmark case in President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption in the government and party ranks.
The eldest son of a family in Xiqiantou village in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, Zhou escaped the rigours and poverty of farming life by receiving good grades at school and passing the national university entrance exam. Three years after entering Suzhou Middle School in 1958, he enrolled in the Beijing Petroleum Institute, now called the China University of Petroleum.

	INFOGRAPHIC: Zhou Yongkang's web of power, money, connections
That educational experience obviously still resonates with Zhou, as his only two public appearances after retiring from political life in November 2012 were at his alma maters.
Starting his career as a technician at the Daqing oilfield in Heilongjiang, 
Zhou later became the head of the Liaohe oil sector and developed a relationship with former vice-president Zeng Qinghong , who was then on the national energy committee.
In 1996, Zhou became head of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), now the nation's largest oil producer.
Most of Zhou's top aides from the oil sector days have also been detained, including Li Hualin , CNPC's vice-general manager and Zhou's former personal secretary. Some of Zhou's relatives are also under investigation for alleged unlawful deals involving CNPC, including eldest son Zhou Bin, daughter-in-law Huang Wan, brother Zhou Yuanqing, sister-in-law Zhou Lingying and her son Zhou Feng.
In 1999, Zhou became the party chief of resource-rich Sichuan province, continuing to gain more followers. He was appointed minister of public security in 2002 and five years later became one of the nine members of the 17th Politburo Standing Committee, the party's most senior decision-making body that also included Hu, Xi and their respective premiers Wen Jiabao and Li Keqiang .
As the domestic security tsar, Zhou unveiled a host of measures to boost the relationship between the police and the public, aimed at easing social tensions. His quotes were posted in police stations across the country.
But things did not go entirely to plan. In 2008, a 28-year-old named Yang Jia killed six police officers in Shanghai and became a celebrity on the internet among those who disliked Zhou's methods. Zhou, however, remained popular among policemen.
The net continued to close around Zhou at the end of last year. Li Dongsheng , a former deputy security minister and Zhou ally, was detained in late December. Shortly after, Beijing city's spy chief Liang Ke was detained and later sacked on suspicion of massive corruption. Other sources have said Liang had assisted Li and Zhou to monitor the phone calls of party elites.
Zhou married a China Central Television (CCTV) presenter, Jia Xiaoye, almost three decades his junior, the year after his first wife was killed in a car crash. Jia is now in custody.
Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan (HK$113 billion) from these people, the sources said.
There has been wild speculation about the extent of Zhou's wealth, though it may be difficult to trace or link to him directly, as Zhou did not get directly involved in business deals. His protection was layers of insulation between himself and the operations.
At least 37 companies, spreading as far as North America, are either owned by Zhou's family or connected to it, the South China Morning Post previously reported. The businesses include oil production, property development, hydropower, tourism and many more. 
For President Xi, the public move against Zhou Yongkang is the pinnacle of his campaign to bring down “tigers” and “flies,” shorthand for corrupt officials of senior and low rank.
The investigation meant Xi had marshalled sufficient political support to shatter a an unwritten rule that current and retired members of the Politburo Standing Committee are immune from corruption investigations.
With additional reporting from Reuters
 


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News

China

Former security chief accused of leaking state secrets as well as accepting bribes as case is handed over to prosecutors


Zhou Yongkang, China's former security chief and Politburo member, has been stripped of his Communist Party membership and will face prosecution, Xinhua reported early on Saturday.


.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Update | Zhou Yongkang kicked out of Chinese Communist Party

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Former security chief accused of leaking state secrets as well as accepting bribes as case is handed over to prosecutors

Update | Zhou Yongkang kicked out of Chinese Communist Party

Former security chief accused of leaking state secrets as well as accepting bribes as case is handed over to prosecutors