China’s former security chief is being investigated for corruption

China has launched an investigation into Zhou Yongkang, the country’s former domestic security chief and one of the most powerful politicians in the last decade. The Chinese state media reported that Yongkang is being investigated on suspicion of corruption in what may be one of China’s worst scandals in recent history.

The Communist Party which rules the Chinese government has decided to begin probing Yongkang for suspected “serious disciplinary violations”, a euphemism that’s commonly used to mean corruption, the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief dispatch.

The Party’s graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, will be conducting the investigation. Xinhua adds that the decision was made in line with the Party’s constitution and anti-corruption regulations.

Yongkang, who is 71-years-old, is the eldest Chinese politician to be caught in a graft scandal in the 60 years since the Communist Party took control of the country. Yongkang was the security chief of the party’s Politburo Standing Committee, and immensely powerful position, and remained there until he retired in 2012.

As security chief, Yongkang oversaw the country’s police force, civilian intelligence apparatus, paramilitary police, judges, and prosecutors. However, Yongkang became too powerful and his position was downgraded during a massive reshuffling of the Chinese leadership in 2012.

President Xi Jinping’s new administration has decided to make fighting deeply-engrained graft its central theme. Jinping has promised to take down anyone who is suspected of corruption, be they low ranked officials or “tigers”, which are senior officials. There has long been an unwritten agreement that members of the Standing Committee will not be investigated after they retire. By ordering the investigation, Jinping has made it clear that things are going to change.

Read more about the story at The New York Times.