Senior Guangdong official probed for corruption

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Disciplinary officials from Beijing are probing a senior member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Guangdong Provincial Committee for alleged corruptions when he was the mayor of Maoming City in Guangdong.

Zhou Zhenhong, a ranking official in the province, was accused of serious violation of the Party's disciplines, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of CPC announced today.

Zhou, 55, disappeared from the public view after he made a report last Friday at the annual session of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress.

A source close to the investigators said Zhou has been placed under "shuanggui," a Chinese term meaning if a Party member is suspected of wrongdoings, he is asked to confess or explain at a stipulated place and time, according to Caixin.com.

Zhou's downfall is part of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign that began last year and has already implicated a large number of officials in Guangdong, including a former Party chief of Maoming, Luo Yinguo.

Luo said it was Zhou who promoted Yang Guangliang as vice mayor of Maoming. Yang has been convicted of taking more than 50 million yuan (US$7.915 million) in bribes, said a report on Caixin.com.

Zhou was dubbed "scholar official" because he used to be the dean and professor of physics at Guangdong University of Technology. He began his political career in 1996 and was promoted as mayor of Zhanjiang in 1998 and mayor of Maoming in 2002 before being elected a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee in 2007.