Three more senior officials named in graft probes

The nation's top anti-corruption watchdog announced on Friday that three more high-ranking officials have been placed under investigation.

Two of them, Bai Yun and Ren Runhou, come from North China's Shanxi province. They were the seventh and eighth cases this year in a series of investigations of officials suspected of corruption in the coal-rich province.

The third official, from the National People's Congress, was also named on Friday.

Bai Yun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Shanxi Provincial Committee, is being probed for "serious discipline and law violations", indicating that corruption is suspected.

Bai is also head of the United Front Work Department of the provincial Party committee, which is in charge of communicating with different political parties, according to a statement released by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The commission gave no further details in the statement on its website.

Ren Runhou, 47, vice-governor of Shanxi, was also probed by the CCDI on Friday, according to the commission's website.

Bai, 54, is the first female provincial-level official to be investigated since November 2012, when the CPC elected its new leadership.

Previously, she served as Party secretary of Yuncheng from January 2012 to February 2013.

In June, Wang Maoshe, Party secretary of Yuncheng, was probed.

Bai had also been head of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist League of China from February 2001 to March 2003.

Before Bai and Ren, six provincial-level officials had been investigated in Shanxi. On Aug 23, the CCDI announced probes of two senior officials in Shanxi - Nie Chunyu, secretary-general of the provincial Party committee, and Chen Chuanping, Party secretary of Taiyuan, the provincial capital.

On June 19, Du Shanxue, deputy governor of Shanxi, and Ling Zhengce, vice-chairman of the province's political advisory body, were named as the subjects of a probe.

Also on Friday, Bai Enpei, vice-director of the NPC Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee, was named as the subject of a probe.

anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn