Combating
Corruption
Another relative of ex-presidential aide ‘held in
corruption probe’ in China
Brother of Ling
Jihua’s wife latest person linked to the former top-ranking government official
detained for alleged graft, according to the financial news service Caixin
PUBLISHED : Monday, 29
December, 2014, 4:15pm
UPDATED : Monday, 29
December, 2014, 5:52pm
Mandy Zuo
Gu Yuanxu. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A relative of Ling
Jihua, the former presidential aide under investigation for corruption, is also
to face questioning for alleged graft, according to a mainland media report.
Gu Yuanxu, 51, was
detained in Beijing after the authorities announced last week that Ling had
been detained for alleged corruption, the financial news service Caixin
reported, citing an unnamed source.
Gu is a senior police
official in Heilongjiang province in northeast China and also the brother of
Ling’s wife.
Gu’s name has been
removed from a list of senior officials in the public security department on
the Heilongjiang government website.
State media announced last Monday that
Ling, who used to be a top aide of former president Hu Jintao, was under
investigation.
Several of Ling’s
relatives and associates have been held for alleged corruption in recent
months, including his brother Ling Wancheng.
Caixin said it had been
unable to reach Gu or his sister Gu Liping by phone since last week.
The last time Gu Yuanxu
was listed as appearing in public was on December 5 when he attended a meeting
in Shenyang about police co-operation in northeastern provinces.
A dozen news items about his activities
have been deleted from the Heilongjiang government website.
A former colleague was
quoted by Caixin as saying that Gu graduated from Beijing Normal University and
had once worked for the Haidian district government in the capital.
He later worked at China
Central Television, the report said.
Gu became vice head of
Ningxia Television in about 2003 before entering the Ministry of Public
Security’s anti-terrorism bureau.
He was made deputy
police chief in Heilongjiang in 2010.
Ling Jihua, a vice
chairman of the national political advisory body the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference, is the latest “tiger” detained under President Xi
Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.
Xi has pledged to target
“tigers” and “flies” in the Communist Party, meaning all officials, however
senior, face investigation over any alleged wrongdoing.
Those detained include
the former national security chief Zhou Yongkang and the ex-vice chairman of
the Central Military Commission, Xu Caihou.
The authorities
announced in June that another of Ling’s brothers, Ling Zhengce, had been
detained in a graft investigation. He was a deputy chairman of Shanxi’s
political advisory body.
Ling Jihua was once
tipped to take a top position in the Politburo, but he was demoted amid reports
that he had tried to cover up the details of his son’s fatal car crash in 2012.
His son, Ling Gu, died
after the Ferrari he was driving crashed in Beijing. Two women in the car were seriously injured.
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