Former rising star of Chinese politics under investigation

THE Chinese Communist Party’s anticorruption watchdog has launched an investigation into a Politburo member once seen as a contender for a top leadership post, just months before a major political congress.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is investigating Sun Zhengcai, who 10 days ago was ousted as party chief in the city of Chongqing, for “serious discipline violation”, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Mr Sun is the first serving member of the 25-person Politburo to be placed under investigation since Bo Xilai, also a former Chongqing party chief who was jailed for life in 2013 in the wake of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. Xinhua’s report did not expand on the accusations nor say whether Mr Sun would remain a member of the Politburo.

Analysts say the shake-up in Chongqing will have implications for the Communist Party’s 19th congress later this year, which will likely cement Mr Xi’s position as the most powerful Chinese leader for a generation. He is expected to secure a second five-year term, but all eyes will be on who will leave or join the Politburo’s standing committee, the group of seven politicians who run the world’s second largest economy.

Mr Sun, who at 53 is the youngest member of the Politburo, had been touted as Mr Xi’s potential successor, said Simone van Nieuwenhuizen, a Sydney-based researcher and co-author of China and the New Maoists. While the reasons for his fall were unknown, “we do know that Sun had been promoted as a protégé of Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao,” she said. “Xi could therefore consider Sun a threat to his own agenda and political ambitions.”