China’s former Xinjiang governor Nur Bekri facing corruption probe
Energy chief – one of few high-ranking Uygur officials and once seen as a rising star – was in the Chinese delegation at meeting with Vladimir Putin this week
China’s energy chief and former governor of its far west region of Xinjiang has been placed under investigation, the country’s top anti-corruption agency announced on Friday morning.
Nur Bekri, director of the National Energy Administration (NEA), was suspected of a “serious violation of discipline and law” – a term that could refer to anything from corruption to political disloyalty – according to a terse statement by the National Supervisory Commission (NSC).
Bekri is one of very few ethnic Uygur officials appointed at his level in the Chinese government. He was last seen in public at a meeting this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as part of a Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Han Zheng, according to footage from state broadcaster CCTV on Wednesday.
Han’s visit to Russia concluded on Tuesday before he began another trip to Singapore on Wednesday.
Bekri is understood to have been taken away from Beijing airport on his arrival there on Thursday.
The 57-year-old became one of the country’s youngest ministerial-level officials when he was appointed governor of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the region’s second most powerful position, in 2008.