Top anti-graft inspector at China's finance ministry under investigation for graft

BEIJING: The head of the anti-graft committee for China’s Ministry of Finance has been put under investigation himself for suspected graft, the ruling Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog said on Sunday.

Mo Jiancheng was suspected of “serious discipline breaches”, a euphemism for graft, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement.

Mo, who became the top graft buster for the finance ministry in December 2015, was also a member of the ministry’s Party committee.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged war on graft for over four years, vowing to continue until he has cleared the Communist Party of both high and low-level graft, which he warns could threaten the party’s existence if left unchecked.

Inspection teams have been a core feature of the campaign, parachuted by central authorities into provinces or institutions to tackle entrenched corruption, in theory immune from bribery and pressure by local officials.

The CCDI has in recent months made efforts to show it is serious about tackling corruption within its own ranks, which it refers to as “darkness hiding beneath the light”.