Mr. Zhou Yongkang was once listed by Forbes magazine (USA) as one of the most powerful people in the world.

According to Xinhua News Agency, on July 29, Mr. Zhou Yongkang, former member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Committee of China, was investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China for "serious disciplinary violations".

Since late 2013, media inside and outside China have continuously reported on the anti-corruption investigation by Chinese authorities into Zhou Yongkang.

Mr. Zhou Yongkang

Zhou Yongkang is the highest-ranking member to be investigated since 1980 when the “Gang of Four” was brought to trial.

Recent reports suggest that China’s most significant anti-corruption investigation in decades is entering its final stages. If Zhou Yongkang is prosecuted, he would be the first retired Politburo Standing Committee member in China to be prosecuted for corruption.

Zhou Yongkang's official career

Zhou Yongkang is considered one of the most powerful politicians in China in the past decade. According to Reuters, Zhou was the one who patronized Bo Xilai, another famous but disgraced politician.

According to information on the People's Daily online, Mr. Zhou Yongkang was born in December 1942, is a Han Chinese, and is originally from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. During the period 1961-1966, he majored in geological surveying and exploration at the Department of Surveying and Exploration of the Beijing Petroleum Institute. During this period, Mr. Zhou joined the Communist Party of China in December 1964.

Mr. Zhou Yongkang (left) and Mr. Bo Xilai during their days in office.

With a bachelor’s degree in hand, Zhou Yongkang was considered a senior engineer with a rank equivalent to that of a professor. In 1967, he started his career in the oil and gas industry as an intern and then an engineer at the geological exploration team of the No. 673 Plant, Daqing Oilfield – one of China’s largest oilfields located in northeastern Heilongjiang Province.

During the period 1967-1985, Mr. Zhou steadily advanced in the oil and gas industry. By the mid-1980s, he had become the Vice Minister of Petroleum and was later appointed Deputy General Manager and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) – one of the most powerful enterprises in the country. CNPC was considered an important launching pad for this politician to continue his career advancement.

In 1998, Zhou Yongkang was appointed Minister of Land and Resources. A year later, he was appointed Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee. He was then elected as an alternate member of the 14th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and became a member of the 15th Central Committee.

According to the South China Morning Post, in 2002, Zhou Yongkang was appointed Minister of Public Security and was elected to the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2007. During the period 2007-2012, he served as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Committee. In 2012, Zhou retired.

Mr. Zhou Yongkang was once listed by Forbes (USA) as one of the most powerful people in the world and was likened to “China’s Dick Cheney”. In Forbes’ 2011 list of the most powerful people in the world, he ranked 29th, higher than leader Xi Jinping (ranked 69th), who was then Vice President of China.

The siege tightens.

According to Reuters, in late November and early December 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered the establishment of a special investigation team to investigate a number of allegations related to Zhou Yongkang from some of his political opponents, including allegations of corruption and violations of party discipline.

President Xi Jinping (right) is determined to deal with even high-ranking officials if there is corruption.

President Xi Jinping has previously described corruption as a threat to the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. Therefore, he considers fighting corruption a central task of the current administration.

After receiving orders from China's top leader, the country's authorities expanded their investigation, continuously interrogating or arresting many people related to Zhou Yongkang, including many people holding important positions in state agencies.

Reuters, citing unnamed sources, said that over the past six months, more than 300 relatives, political allies, employees and protégés of Zhou Yongkang have been removed from office, questioned or detained. Notable among them are Jiang Jiemin, who was once chairman of PetroChina and CNPC; former Vice Minister of Public Security Li Dongsheng; and Vice Governor of Hainan Province Ji Wenlin. “Xi is gradually pulling out all the teeth of this tiger,” said one unnamed source.

The CCDI website announced on July 2 that the Vice Governor of Hainan Island Province, Ji Wenlin, was charged with two crimes: corruption and adultery. For these crimes, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China.

Mr. Ji Wenlin and Zhou Yongkang worked together when Mr. Zhou was Minister of Land and Resources in the late 1990s. In addition, the two also worked together at the Ministry of Public Security in early 2000.

Another right-hand man of the “tiger” Zhou, Yu Gang, former deputy director of the Office of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (CPLC), was also expelled from the Party. In addition, there was Xin Hong, a former senior officer of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. These were two secretaries of Zhou Yongkang when the former Politburo Standing Committee member was in charge of supervising the Ministry.

In a decisive move, on March 30, Reuters quoted two anonymous sources as saying that Chinese authorities had seized a huge amount of assets worth up to 90 billion yuan (14.5 billion USD) from the family and people related to Mr. Zhou Yongkang.

The assets include 300 apartments and villas, many antiques, famous paintings of great value, and more than 60 cars of various types. There is also foreign currency, gold, cash, and expensive wine. However, these assets are not in Zhou Yongkang's name but in the names of those arrested.

To have such a huge fortune, Mr. Chu also let his son, mother-in-law, relatives... win many oil and gas contracts (during the time Mr. Chu was Deputy General Director and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China National Petroleum Corporation). Moreover, when Mr. Chu was Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee (1999-2002), there were many investment companies in the energy sector (based in Sichuan) considered to be Mr. Chu's "backyard".

“We will not tolerate corruption and corrupt officials,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement to reporters at the closing press conference of the annual session of the National People’s Congress in mid-March 2014. “No matter who they are or how high their position is, everyone is equal before the law.”

“If they violate party discipline or the law, they will be severely dealt with and punished according to the law,” Premier Li Keqiang affirmed.

The above statement by the Chinese Government leader shows the political determination of the Chinese Party and State in the fight against corruption. In particular, the decision to publicly investigate Mr. Zhou Yongkang demonstrates President Xi Jinping's tough stance that even the highest-ranking official who commits corruption will be severely punished./.

According to VOV