Photo: unsplash

Several officials from different levels of governments in China have been put under investigation or punished in recent days, highlighting the country's anti-corruption drive is consistent and that the top authorities stand firm and show zero tolerance toward corrupt officials.

In the past two days, at least three senior officials from the central government department level were under investigation or punished, six provincial-level officials were also under probe, the Global Times learned from the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the country's top anti-graft body. 

Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Li Jinzao is being investigated for suspected serious violations of discipline and law, the top anti-graft body said on Wednesday.

Zhang He, former vice governor of north China's Hebei Province, has been expelled from the CPC over serious violations of Party discipline and law, the CCDI announced Tuesday. Zhang lost his ideals and convictions and was disloyal and dishonest to the Party, the statement from the CCDI said. He was found to have appointed officials against Party regulations, accepted gifts and money, and allowed relatives to seek personal gains by taking advantage of his position

Lu Guimin, a former head at the Department of Farmland Enhancement under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, has been expelled from office and from the Party, the CCDI announced on Wednesday

Meanwhile, the CPC Jilin provincial committee is leading a disciplinary investigation into He Dian, a deputy director of the Department of Public Security of the province, after He was reportedly writing the book, Safeness Sutra, the CCDI reported Wednesday.

Wang Yunting, Party chief of the Health Commission in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, is also under investigation for severe violations of discipline and law, the CCDI said Wednesday. Wang was vice president of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing before he became a health official in Tibet in April 2016.

Zhu Huashan, vice head at the Education Department of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, is likewise under investigation.

Moreover, the Party secretary and head of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology Wang Gang, Sichuan Coal Industry Group Party chief and chairman Jing Hongnian and former president of Zhongyuan Asset Management Co Ltd Yue Shengli are also under disciplinary and supervision investigation.

China launched an anti-graft campaign since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012 and consolidated its sweeping victory against corruption in 2019.

From January to November, disciplinary inspection and supervisory organs across the country filed and investigated 555,000 cases, with 485,000 people receiving disciplinary measures within the Party or government agencies, while 19,000 were transferred to procuratorates for criminal investigation.