CNPC Anti-Corruption Head Said to Be Detained for Investigation
China National Petroleum Corp.’s executive in charge of rooting out graft has been detained by authorities, according to two officials at the country’s biggest oil and gas producer.
Wang Lixin, the head of the discipline and inspection department at the state-owned company, has been held for investigation since late September, said the officials, who requested their names not be used because the information isn’t public.
Oil giants CNPC and its Hong Kong-listed unit PetroChina Co. have been in the spotlight of President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign since August 2013, targeted by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s top graft-busting agency, known as the CCDI.
As a former Politburo Standing Committee member, Zhou was the highest-level China official detained in Xi’s drive to tackle corruption in the hierarchy.
Corruption investigations into China’s state-controlled companies are conducted by the CCDI, whose current head, Wang Qishan, is a member of the party’s Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s most powerful decision-making authority.
The CCDI investigates and detains party members suspected of graft in an extra-legal system that functions outside of the country’s courts of law and police structure.
According to Wang’s resume on the CNPC website, he rose through the ranks starting in the Shengli oilfield in Shandong province when it was under the control of the oil company.
In that career path, he followed in the footsteps of Zhou and Jiang who had both worked at the field as general managers. Wang may now have followed them both into the arms of the CCDI.
Source: bloomberg- CNPC Anti-Corruption Head Said to Be Detained for Investigation
