Beijing, April 3 The former head of Xinjiang, a senior official of the ruling Communist Party of China and also a member of the influential Politburo, is under investigation for suspected violations of discipline and law, the latest high-ranking official to be scrutinized by the anti-corruption watchdog.
Ma Xingrui has been placed under disciplinary and supervisory investigation, an official statement said on Friday.
Ma, also deputy head of the Leading Group for Rural Affairs of the CPC, is being investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, an anti-corruption watchdog, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
He is part of the 24-member Politburo, a top decision-making body of the party headed by President Xi Jinping.
He is the third member of this elite political body to come under investigation during the current term that began in 2022, a situation unseen in decades.
The military, headed by Xi, has witnessed recurring purges.
He Weidong, the former vice-chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) headed by Xi, was expelled from the party and military in October. He is also under investigation.
Senior-most General Zhang Youxia, another CMC vice-chairman and also a member of the Politburo, was placed under investigation for suspected serious violations of party discipline and law, which sent shockwaves through the military.
According to one account, over 100 Major General-level officials have been punished since Xi came to power in 2012.
Due to recurring purges of the six-member CMC, the overall high command of the Chinese military has been reduced to two members, including Xi and Gen Zhang Shengmin, secretary of the discipline inspection body.
Since the 2022 CPC congress, at least 24 members of the Central Committee – the party’s highest political-executive organ – have been expelled or placed under investigation, the Hong Kong-based South China Post reported.
Last year, the clean-up drive netted a record 65 high-ranking officials – from top party and government leaders and ministry heads to financial regulators, state-enterprise executives, university presidents and senior military officers.
Ma abruptly stepped down as party secretary of the far western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in July last year.
He has also been absent from several key party events since November, fueling speculation about his whereabouts.
As an aerospace expert, Ma spent many years working at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, serving as its general manager from 2007 to 2013.
During that time, Ma was both the deputy commander-in-chief of China's manned space programme and commander-in-chief of the new-generation carrier rocket project, the Post reported.
Several of his former subordinates in the aerospace sector have been caught in the anti-corruption net in the past few years.