Former top Hebei official Zhang Yue will be placed under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for “alleged serious violation,” according to a post by CCDI on its website on April 16.
Zhang served as Secretary of the CPC Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Hebei from 2008 until his dismissal this month.
CCDI did not give any other detail regarding its probe on Zhang.
According to an unnamed source, the 54-year-old former police officer and his friend Ma Jian, former deputy chief of China’s National Security Bureau, used their power and influence to help real estate tycoon Guo Wengui carry out his business plans, reported Caixin Online.
Zhang was the one who introduced Ma to Guo in 2004, according to the source.
Ma helped Guo pursue a lucrative development project near Olympic Green in Chaoyang District.
In 2009, Guo was able to acquire a 6.81 percent stake at China Minzu Securities, a security brokerage firm in Beijing, this time through the help of Zhang.
Guo’s net worth reached $1.1 billion in 2015, according to Forbes.
Ma went to prison in 2015 reportedly for corruption, according to South China Morning Post.
The newspaper said that Zhang shared a “close” friendship with detained former official Zhou Yongkang, who was the country’s Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.
Prior to his assignment in Hebei, Zhang occupied various posts at the Beijing Public Security Bureau from 1980 as a police officer at the bureau’s Xuanwu Branch until 2003 as its deputy director, according to CCDI’s website.
The Ministry of Public Security then made Zhang director of its anti-cult bureau in Nov. 2003, a position he held until Dec. 2007.
Since his ascendance to power in Nov. 2012, President Xi Jinping has launched an anti-corruption campaign that has so far led to the dismissal and imprisonment of some political bigwigs, such as Li Dongsheng, vice minister of the Ministry of Public Security.
“We must make sure officials dare not corrupt, cannot be corrupt and do not want to be corrupt,” said President Xi, quoted by Institutional Investor, an international financial magazine.