China expelled a former vice chairman of the top political advisory body from ruling Communist Party of China for graft on Monday, abuse of power and ordered trial against him, as the anti-graft campaign by President Xi Jinping claimed more scalps of senior party leaders.
Su Rong, 66, former vice chairman of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) an advisory legislative body has been expelled from the Communist Party and dismissed from public office following an internal graft investigation, anti-corruption watchdog, The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said.
He will face trial on corruption charges. It alleged that he had exchanged official posts for “huge amounts of illegal profits” and allowed relatives to take advantage of his political power.
CCDI has said his case has been transferred to judiciary for trial.
He abused his power and caused “great losses” to state assets, failed to take responsibility for promoting clean governance and was accountable for serious corruption in Jiangxi Province, where he was party chief between 2007 and 2013, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted CCDI as saying.
Reports here earlier said Su’s wife, Yu Lifang, was one of the state official’s relatives that had taken up a lucrative post at Minsheng Bank, whose former president, Mao Xiaofeng, was recently taken in for questioning by the government’s graft-buster.
Yu had reportedly sat on the bank board’s audit committee “for a long time” after she retired.
Su was put under graft investigation last June.
He was the yet another senior leader to face the same fate meted out to former national security chief, Zhou Yongkang and disgraced leader Bo Xilai who is serving a life sentence for corruption and abuse of power.
Zhou, who served as the ninth rank leader under previous President Hu Jintao was the top most CPC official being investigated. Besides scores officials of various ranks, 16 senior Generals including the former Vice Chairman of the Military Commission, Gen Xu Caihou faced corruption related investigations in the unprecedented campaign.
Su was one of 23 vice-chairmen of the CPPCC, a political advisory body of more than 2,000 delegates that is part of the party-controlled government structure.
Su served as party chief in Gansu, Qinghai and Jiangxi, before being elevated to the national leadership, South China Morning Post reported.
