AP, Beijing :
The top aide to former Chinese President Hu Jintao has been placed under investigation for unspecified disciplinary violations, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday, in a sign that President Xi Jinping is removing his predecessor’s influences while consolidating his power.The evening announcement came two years after the former aide, Ling Jihua, fell out of political favor when a lurid scandal involving his alleged cover-up of his son’s death in a speeding Ferrari disrupted his political ascent.
But Ling returned to the public eye this year when authorities put his two brothers – one a politician in the coal-rich northern province of Shanxi and the other a businessman – under investigation, triggering speculation that Ling too would be implicated under Xi’s widening anti-corruption campaign.
The top aide to former Chinese President Hu Jintao has been placed under investigation for unspecified disciplinary violations, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday, in a sign that President Xi Jinping is removing his predecessor’s influences while consolidating his power.The evening announcement came two years after the former aide, Ling Jihua, fell out of political favor when a lurid scandal involving his alleged cover-up of his son’s death in a speeding Ferrari disrupted his political ascent.
But Ling returned to the public eye this year when authorities put his two brothers – one a politician in the coal-rich northern province of Shanxi and the other a businessman – under investigation, triggering speculation that Ling too would be implicated under Xi’s widening anti-corruption campaign.
