Guangxi Vice Governor Liu Hongwu under corruption probe in China

A high-ranking official in the southern Chinese region of Guangxi is being investigated for corruption, according to the ruling Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog.

Vice Governor Liu Hongwu is being investigated by the Central Committee for Discipline Inspection for “serious violations of discipline and laws,” the committee’s standard term for graft. No additional information was provided.

The first indication of his downfall happened on Wednesday when his name disappeared from the government’s official website, according to a Guangxi official.

According to Liu’s official biography, he is a senior economist and the head of the Beibu Gulf’s development office, also known as the Gulf of Tonkin.

Guangxi shares a southern border with Vietnam and is renowned for its lush landscape of karst formations and diverse minority groups, most notably the Zhuang.

Due to the region’s extensive land and sea borders, as well as its distance from Beijing, the region has developed a reputation for smuggling and other illegal activity.

Cheng Kejie, a former Guangxi governor, was the highest-ranking Chinese official to be executed for corruption in September 2000.

President and party leader Xi Jinping has waged a decade-long campaign against corruption, ensnaring serving and retired officials in the military, government, party, and state industries, though the pace of investigations appears to have slowed in recent years.

• On Thursday, prosecutors in the northeastern city of Changchun officially charged Sun Lijun, a former public security vice-minister, with accepting a “huge amount” of bribes, market manipulation and the illegal possession of firearms, signalling that his trial would likely begin soon.
• On the same day, Tong Daochi, 54, former party chief of southern Hainan province’s tourist city Sanya, pleaded guilty to taking 274 million yuan (about US$43 million) in bribes and engaging in insider trading. His sentence will be announced at a later date.
• Earlier this month, the anti-corruption agency also announced that Zhang Yongze, Tibet’s vice-chairman, and Wang Bin, chairman of China Life Insurance (Group), were under investigation.

(Source: AP and SCMP)