Reuters reports that the eldest son of former security chief and Bo Xilai patron Zhou Yongkang is in “quasi-detention” after returning from the U.S. to assist with an investigation into one of his father’s allies. From Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard:
One of the sources, who has ties to the leadership, said the investigation that Zhou Yongkang’s son, Zhou Bin, is helping with was linked to a probe into Jiang Jiemin, until recently the top regulator of state-owned enterprises.
[…] Jiang was previously chairman of energy giant China National Petroleum Corp – Zhou Yongkang’s power base – as well as one of its subsidiaries, oil-and-gas behemoth PetroChina.
The three sources told Reuters that Zhou Bin was under quasi-detention on the outskirts of Beijing so he could assist the party’s anti-corruption watchdog with the investigation.
“Zhou Bin agreed to return from abroad for questioning by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection,” said a second source, who has direct knowledge of the matter. [Source]
The report comes amid persistent rumors that Zhou the elder has also been detained. South China Morning Post reported in August that Zhou was in the crosshairs of a corruption probe that would be made public after November’s Third Plenum, but although several of his associates including Jiang have been targeted, Reuters later countered that Zhou himself was not under investigation. His appearance in October at the China University of Petroleum further suppressed the rumors, until recently.
