Communist Party of China expels top leader

Zhou Yongkang, a retired senior leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has been expelled from the party and prosecutors have opened an investigation into his suspected crimes and decided to arrest him, the authorities announced Saturday.

Zhou's expulsion from the CPC was according to a decision made at a meeting of the political bureau of the CPC central committee Friday, Xinhua reported.

The meeting also decided to transfer the suspected criminal case of Zhou, a former member of the standing committee of the political bureau of the CPC central committee, and relevant clues to judicial organs for handling according to the law.

The decisions were made after participants at the meeting deliberated over and adopted an investigation report on Zhou's severe disciplinary violations, which had been submitted by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

A separate statement released Saturday by the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said prosecutors had opened an investigation into Zhou's suspected crimes and decided to arrest him according to the law.

According to a statement released after Friday's meeting of the political bureau of the CPC central committee, the standing committee of the political bureau of the CPC central committee met Dec 1, 2013, to hear a report on the clues pointing to Zhou's disciplinary violations uncovered by the CCDI, and decided to launch an examination.

July 29, 2014, the political bureau of the CPC central committee held a meeting to hear a CCDI report on the examination and decided to file a case for investigation.

The investigation found that Zhou seriously violated the party's political, organisational and confidentiality discipline. He took advantage of his posts to seek profits for others and accepted huge bribes personally and through his family, the statement said.

He abused his power to help relatives, mistresses and friends make huge profits from operating businesses, resulting in serious losses of state-owned assets.

Zhou leaked the party's and country's secrets. He seriously violated self-disciplinary regulations and accepted a large amount of money and property personally and through his family.

Zhou committed adultery with a number of women and traded his power for sex and money, it said, adding that other clues of suspected crimes by Zhou were also found during the investigation.

What Zhou did completely deviated from the party's nature and mission, and seriously violated Party discipline. His behaviour badly undermined the reputation of the party, significantly damaged the cause of the party and the people, and have yielded serious consequences, the statement said.