Authorities investigate head of China Telecom
AFP, BEIJING: The head of China Telecom, one of the nations big three telecoms firms, is under investigation for severe disciplinary violations, the government yesterday, the latest high-profile target in a corruption crackdown.
News of the probe into Chang Xiaobing, 58, was given in a statement on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the watchdog of the ruling Communist Party. The term is normally a euphemism for graft.
Chang had been taken away, according to an article in the respected business magazine Caijing, which added that he disappeared just days before a meeting of the state-owned company planned for December 28.
A memo saying the meeting would be postponed was issued on the evening of the 26th, the article said. Changs phone was switched off and he had not responded to multiple calls, it added.
In August, after 11 years as chairman and party secretary of Chinas second largest telecoms provider China Unicom, Beijing announced Chang would head China Telecom.
That decision, Caijing said, was made despite widespread rumours that the executive was under investigation. It sparked speculation about an imminent tie-up between the two industry leaders and the third major player, China Mobile.
In April the state news agency Xinhua reported that China
was considering merging
scores of its biggest state-owned companies to create around 40 national champions from the existing 111.
Authorities have been pursuing a hard-hitting campaign against allegedly crooked officials since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, a crusade that some experts have called a political purge.
Several high-profile business leaders have been caught up in the web of graft investigations after authorities pledged they would turn their efforts to the state-owned enterprise system, a bulwark of graft that has resisted multiple attempts at reform.
