China detains spy chief in anti-graft crackdown
17 Jan 2015 12:30 AM GMT
China on Friday said it has detained one of its top spy chiefs and has named 16 military commanders for alleged corruption, indicating President Xi Jinping’s bold, sweeping crackdown on graft has now touched the communist nation’s powerful army and intelligence set-up. Ma Jian, the executive deputy head of the state intelligence agency, has been placed under investigations for suspected “serious violation of party disciplines and law”, anti-corruption watchdog China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a terse statement, confirming earlier reports that country’s most powerful security official was detained.
The term “serious violation of party disciplines and law” has usually been used by the communist nation as a euphemism for graft. A number of Ma’s relatives were also arrested. Ma is the most senior security official to be probed since the downfall of Zhou Yongkang, the country’s former security czar, in a graft scandal last July. While few details were available on this unprecedented action, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post which first reported his arrest on January 12 said Ma was reportedly linked to a high-profile anti-graft probe into activities of top management of Founder Group, a Peking University-owned technology conglomerate.
The term “serious violation of party disciplines and law” has usually been used by the communist nation as a euphemism for graft. A number of Ma’s relatives were also arrested. Ma is the most senior security official to be probed since the downfall of Zhou Yongkang, the country’s former security czar, in a graft scandal last July. While few details were available on this unprecedented action, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post which first reported his arrest on January 12 said Ma was reportedly linked to a high-profile anti-graft probe into activities of top management of Founder Group, a Peking University-owned technology conglomerate.
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