ANTI-GRAFT authorities in China today announced that they are investigating a former justice minister, the latest senior cadre to be drawn into the sweeping corruption drive in the country.

A growing number of top Communist figures have been caught up in President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which critics said has served as a way to remove the leader’s political enemies since he came to power in 2013.

Fu Zhenghua – who held key roles in Beijing, including justice minister and Public Security Bureau head – is being investigated for “serious violation of discipline and law”, according to a statement from authorities.

Once the top cop in Beijing, Fu is said to have led the corruption investigation into Zhou Yongkang – a former security tsar jailed in 2015 – in one of the most high-profile cases.

But he is now facing his own investigation by anti-graft body Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Fu is the deputy director of the social and legal affairs committee on the standing committee of largely ceremonial advisory body Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

The CDDI statement comes just days after former deputy public security minister Sun Lijun – who oversaw security in Hong Kong during months of unrest – was expelled from the party for corruption.

Sun was accused of keeping a personal stash of confidential documents, absconding from his pandemic-fighting duties and paying for sex, and will face further investigation and prosecution.

More than a million officials have been punished under the anti-corruption campaign, which has been a cornerstone of Xi’s tenure.

Last month, the former head of Chinese liquor firm Kweichow Moutai – the world’s most valuable spirits company – was jailed for life for taking more than US$17 million (RM71 million) in bribes.

Last year, the former head of a Chinese insurance regulator was sentenced to 11 years in prison, also on charges of taking bribes. – AFP, October 2, 2021.