The rise and fall of brother of Ling Jihua, ex-aide to former president Hu Jintao
Talented golfer Ling Wancheng successfully turned his hand from journalism to business
With his rimless glasses, dapper shirts and neat, close-cropped hair, Wang Cheng cut an athletic figure on Beijing's top golf courses.
The tanned, healthy-looking businessman was admired for his skill and sophistication and a fine swing that won him several amateur championships. Yet few would have linked the refined man with rumours in the capital that a powerful Shanxi figure named Ling was doomed.
Yet those in the loop knew that the journalist-turned-businessman Wang Cheng liked to use a pseudonym; that his real name was Ling Wancheng; that he was the youngest of four sons in a family known for their political clout; and that when in late October he was taken into custody after returning to China from the US, his future - like that of his elder brother - was bleak.
His detention means all three living Ling sons (the eldest, Ling Fangzhen, is dead) have been netted in President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive.
Elder brother Ling Zhengce, 62, former vice-chairman of the political consultative conference in the family's home province, Shanxi, had been detained in June. When the inquiry widened to include Wancheng, the youngest at 55, many saw the move as the Communist Party closing the net on a third sibling and even bigger fish - Ling Jihua, 58, ex-chief of staff to former president, Hu Jintao. Yet Ling Wancheng's downfall came as a surprise to many as, unlike his two brothers, he was not a politician. When he graduated in economics from Jilin University he started work at , a magazine covering China's politics and economy, which is supervised by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
His colleagues knew Wancheng's family name derived from Linghu, a fabled surname renowned in Chinese literature. The name made him popular at work; distant colleagues were keen to meet him in person.
Like his brothers, Wancheng knew how to climb the ladder of success. In 1995, he led a team of Xinhua staff sent to develop rural areas in Guizhou province. After this right of passage, which party cadres often need to pass for promotion, Wancheng became the deputy secretary of the Youth League of Xinhua and the deputy chief of staff of Xinhua.
