China Investigates Former Security Chief

One of China's most feared and powerful men is being investigated in a suspected corruption probe.

Former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang is being investigated for "serious disciplinary violation", the ruling party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection - its internal watchdog - said in a statement.

The term is usually used to refer to corruption.

Analysts have said the move indicates party chief Xi Jinping has now amassed enough power to break even longstanding taboos in his much-publicised anti-corruption sweep.

It is highly unusual for a man of his position to be investigated

"There is an unwritten rule that they will not go after former members of the politburo standing committee," said Willy Lam, a politics specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"The party elders like Jiang Zemin and Li Peng and so forth were opposed to incriminating Zhou Yongkang," he said, referring to China's former president and premier.

"It shows that Xi Jinping is powerful enough or resourceful enough to convince the party elders," he added.

Mr Xi has vowed to crack down on endemic corruption among top party members, or "tigers", as well as low-ranking members, or "flies", but critics say he is unlikely to succeed without more fundamental reforms such as greater press freedoms and independent courts.

Zhou was, until his retirement in 2012 from the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, one of nine leaders in the party's ruling inner circle.

He was a supporter of fallen political star Bo Xilai, whom he is said to have backed for a slot on the country's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, but who fell from grace following the death of British businessman Neil Heywood, for which Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted of murder.

The last person of such importance to go on trial was founding leader Mao Zedong's widow, Jian Qing,  who went on trial in 1980 as a member of the Gang of Four and was sentenced to life in prison.

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