Xinhua reports that Yang Kun, a former official at the Agricultural Bank of China, has been expelled from the CCP and handed over to China’s party judiciary after a disciplinary investigation:
Yang Kun, former vice president of the Agricultural Bank of China, was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and removed from public office, a statement said Monday.
Yang has been investigated for serious discipline violations by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said a statement from CCDI.
The investigation shows that he exploited his position to seek benefits for other people in return for huge bribes, the statement said.
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Yang’s party career is the latest to come to an end under president Xi Jinping’s ongoing campaign against official corruption. The New York Times’ coverage of Yang’s indictment mentions the likelihood of his conviction, and other recent developments in the anti-corruption campaign:
In China, senior officials accused of wrongdoing usually first face the party discipline commission, which decides whether to authorize a legal inquiry that can bring a criminal indictment. With that inquiry now under way, Mr. Yang is likely to face trial and conviction; China’s party-run courts rarely find defendants innocent.
[…]Since coming to power in November, China’s top party leader, Xi Jinping, has repeatedly vowed to end official corruption and extravagance, a major source of public disenchantment with the government. Last week, Wang Qishan, the party leader in charge of investigating official misconduct, said teams of inspectors would be sent across the country to help “stanch the spread of corruption.”
This month, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said it was investigating Liu Tienan, a senior economic policy maker, whom a Chinese journalist last year accused of engaging in tainted business dealings and threatening to kill a mistress who exposed those dealings.
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As arrests continually reiterate Xi’s goal to eradicate official corruption in all levels of the party, his administration is engaged in a contradictory crackdown on anti-corruption activists.
