New allegations have emerged against Li Chuncheng, a senior official from Sichuan Province, currently under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Li is alleged to have bribed supervisors for promotion and taken kickbacks from the construction industry.

The new allegations were published by Shen Yong, a standing member of the Jinniu district Party committee in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, on his microblog last week following the CCDI's confirmation on December 6 that Li was under detention, and confirmed in a newspaper interview.

Shen accuses Li of bribing Han Guizhi, the then director of the organization department of the CPC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee and vice secretary of the committee, in order to win promotion.

Han was sentenced to death with two years' reprieve in Beijing in 2005.

In an interview with the Beijing-based Legal Weekly, Shen accused Li of using his appointment to secretary of the Chengdu Party committee in 2003 to sell government positions in return for money.

After the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, Li also appointed his wife as vice director of the Red Cross Society Chengdu raising her director a year later. Shen accuses the couple of profiting from donations given to the Red Cross.

Shen told the Legal Daily that he has been reporting Li to the disciplinary authorities since 2004.

Shen did not reply to messages sent by the Global Times and the CCDI could not be reached for comments.

Li also received massive kickbacks during the handling of construction projects, the Legal Weekly quoted anonymous sources as saying.  During Li's term, Chengdu's GDP sky-rocketed from 187 billion yuan ($29.9 billion) in 2003 to about 690 billion yuan in 2011.

The "Chengdu Model," was characterized by land property rights reform and rural development projects, in the eyes of analysts.

"Li's case has shown a paradox in China's officialdom. Local officials are busy developing new projects and boosting the local economy, yet they also use the opportunity to make themselves rich," Wang Yukai, an anti-corruption expert with the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times.

"There's nothing wrong in Chengdu's attempt to develop better villages and improving the living standards of local villagers. The problem is that China lacks a mechanism to prevent local leaders, especially the top ones, from abusing their power," Wang said, noting that similar cases are likely to recur in places where big development projects are launched.

Li's detention makes him the highest official caught in the anti-corruption storm since the country's leadership reshuffle in mid-November.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, warned in late-November that increasingly severe corruption "could kill the Party and ruin the country" and urged Party leaders to build clean government.