Former Party official investigated

A former minister of the Organization Department under the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China has been investigated for accepting bribes, according to the Supreme People's Prosecutorate.

ThePaper.cn reported that Liang Bin's case is connected to Shanxi province, where inspectors were sent last year to gather tip-offs about corruption.

Many provincial-level officials there have been probed including Jin Daoming, former vice-head of the provincial political advisory authority and Chen Chuanping, former Party chief in Taiyuan city.

According to the report, Liang had worked in Shanxi for more than 30 years and was serving as Party chief of Suzhou and vice-governor of Shanxi between 2001 and 2008 before moving to Hebei.

While serving as vice-governor of Shanxi he allegedly abused his power to benefit other enterprises and accepted huge bribes, according to ThePaper.cn.

In November last year he was taken away by anti-graft officers for "serious violations of Party rules" and in early January was expelled from the Party and removed from his post.