Ex-aide arrested in corruption purge
Former President Hu Jintao’s top aide has been arrested on corruption charges, stripped of his party membership and removed from all government positions, China’s state media said.
The ruling by the Communist Party’s Politburo came seven months after Ling Jihua was placed under internal investigation for disciplinary violations.
The fall of Ling has come amid a stern anti-corruption campaign by Hu’s successor Xi Jinping. The campaign is seen by many as a means to not only restore public confidence in the ruling party, but also to root out threats to Xi’s political dominance.
Jeffrey Bader, a senior fellow at the Washington-based think-tank Brookings Institution, said the expulsion of Ling from the party and the arrest was long expected.
“It’s the sign of the determination of Xi Jinping and the leadership to go after high-level actors in the anti-corruption campaign,” Bader said.
The political motivation to purge Ling is unclear, said Steve Tsang, senior fellow at the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute. “We have not heard of any real personal grudge that Xi Jinping would have against Ling Jihua,” Tsang said.
Ling held a sensitive position but never made it into the party’s top echelon.
There was no evidence linking Ling to opposing Xi, and the Youth League faction to which he belonged has not been politically targeted at the high level, Tsang said.
Ling, formerly head of the party’s general office under Hu, became well known in China in 2012 when his son crashed a Ferrari in Beijing with two nude or half-dressed women, according to various reports. Ling was accused of covering up the scandal.
The Xinhua News Agency said the internal investigation found Ling took huge amounts of money through bribery and used his position to seek benefits for others. It said Ling had allowed his family to benefit financially from his political influence.
The report specifically said Ling’s wife, Gu Liping, received bribes and that her business activities benefited from Ling’s status. Gu was involved with non-governmental organisations on youth issues.