Senior Communist Party boss arrested after handing himself in to anti-corruption watchdog

Former Yunnan boss Qin Guangrong became one of the most senior figures to surrender to anti-graft investigators in May

State media reports that he has now been placed under formal arrest on suspicion of taking bribes

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Qin Guangrong, the former Yunnan province Communist Party secretary. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:00pm, 25 Oct 2019Updated: 11:27pm, 25 Oct 2019

A former Communist Party provincial chief who turned himself in to anti-corruption investigators has been officially arrested by prosecutors, state media reported on Friday, moving him a step closer to an indictment.

Qin Guangrong, the former boss of Yunnan province, is one of the most senior officials to surrender himself to investigators during an ongoing crackdown on graft.

Xinhua, the official state news agency, reported that he was suspected of taking bribes, citing the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, without providing further details.

The National Supervisory Commission, the top anti-corruption watchdog, announced in May that Qin had surrendered to investigators.

The announcement followed reports by the leading Chinese news outlet Caixin that his son Qin Ling had been placed under investigation as part of a wider corruption probe into his employer China Huarong Asset Management, the country’s biggest state-owned manager of distressed assets.

The anti-graft commission finished its investigation into the older Qin four months later. It accused him of taking bribes and referred his case to prosecutors. He was also expelled from the Communist Party.