THE Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has decided to place Zhou Yongkang, China’s former security chief, under investigation for suspected “serious disciplinary violations,” which usually refers to corruption.

    The investigation will be conducted by the Party’s watchdog, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and the decision was made in line with the CPC Constitution and anti-corruption regulations, Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

    Zhou, 72, is the most senior Chinese politician to have been ensnared in a graft scandal since 1949.

    Zhou was a member of the Party’s Politburo Standing Committee — China’s top decision-making body — and held the immensely powerful post of security chief until he retired in 2012.

    During his five-year tenure as security chief, Zhou oversaw the police force, civilian intelligence apparatus, paramilitary police, judges and prosecutors. Government spending on domestic security exceeded the defense budget.

    Zhou, a native of Wuxi City in Jiangsu Province who graduated from China University of Petroleum in 1966, was Party chief and general manager of China National Petroleum Corp. between 1996 and 1998. He was Party chief of Sichuan Province from 1999 to 2002 and became a member of the Party’s Politburo Standing Committee in 2007.

    President Xi Jinping has made fighting graft a central theme of his new administration, and has promised to take down “tigers” — or senior officials — as well as those of lower rank who are implicated in corruption.

    Earlier this month, three associates of Zhou— Ji Wenlin, Zhou’s former secretary, Yu Gang, an ex-vice director of the office of the Central Politics and Law Commission, and Tan Hong, a former senior staff officer of the Ministry of Public Security — were stripped of their Party membership.

    Meanwhile, businessman Zhou Bin, Zhou’s son, has been arrested for suspected illegal business operations, the Caijing magazine reported yesterday.

    No specific details were released on the allegations against Zhou Yongkang. But reports by the financial news magazines Caixin and Caijing, and a prominent newspaper, The Beijing News, have detailed how Zhou Bin, 42, built a business empire in oil and real estate through connections that were not explicitly stated but that clearly hinted at Zhou.

    Zhou Bin also was business partners with Liu Han, a former multi-millionaire mining tycoon who was sentenced to death in May on charges of running a criminal gang.(SD-Agencies)