SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A top executive of China's Baosteel Group, the parent of Baoshan Iron & Steel (SS:600019), is being investigated for "serious disciplinary violations", China's corruption watchdog said on Tuesday, as Beijing intensifies its war on deep-seated graft.
President Xi Jinping has warned that corruption threatens the survival of China's ruling Communist Party and his two-year anti-graft campaign has brought down scores of senior officials in the party, the government, the military and state-owned enterprises.
"Serious disciplinary violations" is the term usually used to refer to corruption in China.
The graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, named the Baosteel official as Vice President Cui Jian, but gave no further details in a short statement.
A spokesman for Baosteel, China's second-largest steelmaker and the world's fourth largest, said the company was aware of the investigation and was watching developments but had no further immediate comment. Cui could not be reached for comment.
The commission's anti-graft efforts at state firms coincide with the imminent roll-out of ambitious new guidelines to overhaul China's inefficient state sector.
The party has targeted 26 major state-owned firms for inspections this year, including China National Petroleum Corporation, Sinopec Group, China National Offshore Oil Corp, Shenhua Group, China National Nuclear Corp, China Southern Power Grid and China Power Investment Corp.
Separately, the Commerce Ministry said that Wang Shenyang, head of its cooperation department, was being investigated for infringing rules against extravagance by "participating in golf and other events organized by companies".
It did not elaborate.
The party has sought to curtail everything from bribery and gift-giving to lavish banquets to assuage public anger over corruption and extravagance, especially when officials are seen as abusing their positions to acquire luxuries.