SHEN DINGCHENG, Party chief and vice president of PetroChina International, disappeared shortly before the Lunar New Year holiday, China Business Journal reported, citing an anonymous source.

    China Business Journal said Shen became a secretary to “a particular leader at China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) at some point between 1992 and 1997.”

    Shen’s wife was also investigated but was allowed to go home, the source added.

    Shen’s profile as part of the management team of PetroChina International, a PetroChina subsidiary, remained on its website Saturday.

    Separately, Beijing city’s spy chief, Liang Ke, was removed from his post amid a widening corruption probe that began Friday.

    Local media reports gave no details and offered no reasons for the reshuffle.

    A source close to Beijing security and law enforcement said Liang, 48, was a key ally of disgraced deputy national police chief Li Dongsheng.

    Li Dongsheng was detained by CCDI investigators in late December.

    On Thursday, Liu Yingxia, who was listed as China’s 46th-richest woman with assets of 4 billion yuan (US$656 million) by wealth publisher the Hurun Report last year, was removed as a member of the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Xinhua reported Thursday, while giving no reason for her banishment.

    Xinhua described Liu as the CPPCC’s “prettiest” member during a previous meeting.

    Liu was born in 1972 to a military family and served five years in the armed forces. She founded the Harbin Xiang-ying Group in Heilongjiang Province at the age of 20 and the company now operates in the property, utility and road construction sectors, the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported Friday.

    A man who answered the office phone at the company Thursday said Liu was out of the country for medical treatment for cancer and would return to China soon.

    He said she had to leave the advisory body because she had been absent from many CPPCC meetings over the past year.

    Liu has also reportedly been an active philanthropist. Media articles said she donated more than 12 million yuan to public welfare causes, including renting a military jet to transport medicine and other aid materials to the earthquake-hit Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province in 2010. (SD-Agencies)