What’s new: A retired former director of the provincial-level state assets regulator in Shanxi is being investigated by local anti-graft agencies, as China deepens its crackdown on corruption in one of the country’s largest coal centers.
Zhu Xiaoming, also former director of the economic committee of the provincial political advisory body, is suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law,” a common euphemism for corruption, according to a Wednesday statement from the Shanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.
The announcement came more than two years after Zhu retired from his political consultative position in February 2021.
The background: Zhu was director and party secretary of the provincial-level State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission from 2010 and 2017. During his tenure, he chaired a mission to restructure state-owned enterprises in the northern province.
In the 2000s, the 65-year-old served as chairman and party secretary of Shanxi Jincheng Anthracite Mining Group, which was later integrated into Jinneng Holding Group Co. Ltd., China’s second-largest coal company. A few senior executives and officials of the large state-owned energy group and its subsidiaries have fallen under probe in recent years, including a deputy general manager who worked under Zhu.
A native of Huangling in the neighboring province of Shaanxi, Zhu obtained a degree in mining from Xi’an Mining Institute, which is now Xi’an University of Science and Technology.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Leila Hashemi (leilahashemi@caixin.com)
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