MOSCOW (Sputnik) — China’s former Deputy Environmental Protection Minister Zhang Lijun is under investigation for alleged corruption, local media reported Thursday, citing the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
According to South China Morning Post, the anti-graft agency said in a statement that Zhang has been detained for serious violations of party discipline and law – the wording usually used to describe corruption.
According to the newspaper, Zhang, who served as the deputy minister of environmental protection from 2008 to 2013, is the most senior Chinese official to come under investigation in a large-scale anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping right after he assumed office in 2012.
Earlier in July, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that the vice president of Chinese Supreme People's Court had been detained and put under investigation on corruption charges.
