Security minister removed from post
Global Times | 2013-12-26 1:03:01
By Global Times
Vice Minister of Public Security Li Dongsheng was removed from his post for "suspected serious law and discipline violations," the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.
He was also removed from his concurrent post as the deputy director of the central government's leading group in preventing and handling cults.
China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on its official website on Friday that Li is under investigation but gave no details.
Li is the 16th provincial-level official and the second member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee to undergo a CCDI probe since the CPC's 18th National Congress concluded in November last year.
Li was the first fallen senior official from the public security system, an important and powerful field in the country's political structure, since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. His removal was seen by many as another example of the Party's firm determination to root out corruption by locking up both "tigers" and "flies," or high-ranking and low-level officials.
Li was the second member of the CPC Central Committee who fell after Jiang Jiemin, former head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Jiang was removed from his post in September.
Li previously worked for decades in the publicity field and served as the vice director of China Central Television and deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee.
He had no experience in public security and law enforcement before he took the position in the Ministry of Public Security in 2009.
The fallen senior official's list also includes Li Chuncheng, former deputy Party chief of Sichuan Province, and Wang Yongchun, former deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation.
An average of 5.8 officials above the vice-minister level had been put under disciplinary inspection every year between 2008 and 2012, reported the Legal Daily.
The CPC on Wednesday vowed to firmly fight corruption and maintain its "high-handed posture" in the next five years, Xinhua reported.
"If the problems of work styles and corruption are not handled properly, they will critically harm the Party, and even lead the Party or nation to perish," said a five-year (2013-2017) plan on building a system to punish and prevent corruption issued by the CPC Central Committee.
"Public satisfaction should be achieved" within five years, the plan stated.
Global Times
