Chinese Outlets Say Security Official in Graft Case Had 6 Mistresses
|
Version 0 of 1. BEIJING — Chinese corruption investigators looking into a top security and intelligence official have found that he had six mistresses and two sons by them, according to a report published by a respected newsmagazine that was carried Monday on the websites of state-run news organizations. The official, Ma Jian, a former vice minister of state security, could also have up to six villas in Beijing, according to the report, which was first printed in Caixin, a newsmagazine that has been regularly publishing details of anticorruption investigations into senior officials. Details of the Caixin report were published Monday by China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, and the China Daily article was posted on several official news websites. When official state news agencies announced in January that Mr. Ma was being investigated on suspicion of corruption, many people in China were taken by surprise, since the institution where Mr. Ma served as a leader, the Ministry of State Security, is widely feared and considered to be among the most powerful agencies in the nation. Mr. Ma is the most senior official at the ministry to be placed under investigation during the broad anticorruption drive started by Xi Jinping, the Communist Party chief and president of China. The ministry operates an intelligence service, spies on foreign entities and also does counterespionage. Political insiders in Beijing and some news reports said Mr. Ma was involved in all of these operations, especially counterespionage. The Caixin report said two of Mr. Ma’s mistresses worked for the ministry. Mr. Ma worked at the agency for more than 30 years and was promoted to his post in 2006. The report said Mr. Ma used his position to help out a businessman from Henan Province named Guo Wengui, who has fled abroad. Mr. Ma’s brother, Ma Long, an executive at a financial institution, has also been detained for investigation. The agency investigating Mr. Ma, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, is run by Wang Qishan, a former finance official and a member of the elite seven-man Politburo Standing Committee who is now widely considered second only to Mr. Xi in the amount of power he wields. In recent years, the party has several times publicly announced that senior officials under investigation have had mistresses. Those officials include Bo Xilai, a former Politburo member and party chief of Chongqing who was felled by a spectacular murder scandal, and Zhou Yongkang, a Bo ally who was a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee and oversaw China’s internal security forces and courts. Mr. Xi and Mr. Wang began the anticorruption campaign shortly after they took their current posts in November 2012. The investigations have resulted in the detention of top leaders and political enemies of Mr. Xi, including Mr. Zhou. The investigations have also reached deep into some of China’s most established institutions, including the state television network and main propaganda apparatus, China Central Television, and one of the main state-owned oil companies, China National Petroleum Corporation, to which Mr. Zhou had close ties. |