The rise and fall of Zhou Yongkang: From rural Jiangsu to the corridors of power
For nearly a decade, the burly son of a poor family in rural Jiangsu was one of the most powerful men in China, but now he is just a detainee at the mercy of the party’s anti-graft agency.
For nearly a decade, the burly son of a poor family in rural Jiangsu was one of the most powerful men in China.
Today, the 71-year-old Zhou Yongkang is no longer an esteemed leader but a detainee of the party's anti-graft agency.
The abrupt turn came in December when Zhou was detained with his wife, Jia Xiaoye, in Beijing, sources said earlier.
Top leaders of the Communist Party had reached a consensus last August to purge their former high-ranking comrade, who was once a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the country's security tsar.
The details of the allegations against him remain unclear, but Zhou could become the highest-profile trophy for President Xi Jinping, who is making his name as a fearless - some would say ruthless - crusader against corruption, willing to break an unspoken party taboo in punishing one of the elite for economic or social crimes.
The eldest son of a family in Xiqiantou village in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, Zhou escaped the rigours and poverty of farming life by receiving good grades at school and passing the national university entrance exam. Three years after entering Suzhou Middle School in 1958, he enrolled in the Beijing Petroleum Institute, now called the China University of Petroleum.
