Update | China targets deputy police minister Li Dongsheng for corruption
Vice-minister of public security Li Dongsheng latest close associate of Zhou Yongkang to fall as part of widening nationwide investigation
A deputy national police chief with close ties to former security tsar Zhou Yongkang has become the latest target in a widening corruption probe that has shaken the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party.
The party's Central Committee for Discipline Inspection announced last night that Li Dongsheng - one of nine vice-ministers responsible for domestic security in the country of 1.35 billion - was suspected of serious violations of party rules and state laws. The agency provided no details about the investigation.
Li, who ranked third in the security ministry, is the second member of the decision-making Central Committee to fall from grace as part of the massive investigation. Several close associates of Zhou's have already placed under investigation.
The announcement came amid a swirl of reports in recent days that the party leadership was preparing to announce an unprecedented corruption investigation into Zhou, who was one of China's most powerful politicians over the past decade.
We can interpret this as a move to target someone higher up. It's like a skirmish to push the war from the periphery to the power centre
"We can interpret this as a move to target someone higher up," said Sun Yat-sen University politics professor Xiao Bin. "It's like a skirmish to push the war from the periphery to the power centre."
