Ex-discipline official faces graft penalty

Zhang Huawei, a former disciplinary officer at the vice-minister level has been expelled from the Communist Party of China over graft issues and serious violations of the Party’s code of conduct, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on Wednesday.

The top anti-graft watchdog will also cancel Zhang’s retirement benefits and confiscate his illegal gains, the CCDI said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.

Zhang, a former inspector with central inspection teams, was found to have seriously violated political discipline and used his position to interfere with the work of institutions being inspected, the watchdog said. He also resisted the Party’s investigation, it said.

Zhang violated the Party’s rules on building a clean government, and attended banquets with the potential to influence his fairness in carrying out his official duties. He also accepted a car paid for by others. In addition, he abused his power to gain benefits for others, and then accepted payoffs either paid in cash or property, the watchdog said.

The CCDI said that as a senior inspector in the Party, Zhang had lost his ideals and beliefs, seriously violated Party expectations, and didn’t cease his inappropriate behavior even after the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012, when the new leadership took office.

The Central Committee of the CPC approved his expulsion from the Party, and evidence of criminal wrongdoing has been transferred to judicial authorities for further investigation.

The disciplinary authorities began investigating Zhang in April. Since November 2012, China has undertaken a special campaign to target both “tigers and flies”, referring to high-ranking or low-ranking officials.

According to t he CCDI, more than 150 high-ranking officials at ministerial level or above have been probed for alleged graft, including Zhou Yongkang, China’s former security chief, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2015.