By Mahmut Atanur
BEIJING (AA) – A Chinese official who served as a top aide to former President Hu Jintao has been charged amid a wide-ranging campaign against corruption.
State news agency Xinhua reported that the Supreme People’s Procuratorate charged Ling Jihua on Friday with accepting bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abuse of power.
Ling, a 59-year-old former vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, was placed under investigation in Dec. 2014.
He has been accused of violating “political rules” and organizational discipline, and seeking profit for his close allies — including his wife — as well as illegally obtaining “core secrets” of the party and state.
Last year, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that he also allegedly exchanged his power for sex and had affairs with several women.
It also cited media as saying that Ling, who hails from China’s coal-rich northern province of Shanxi, led the so-called Shanxi Gang.
Ling had reportedly had a successful political career until being demoted after his son Ling Gu was killed in a high-profile Ferrari accident that left two young women passengers seriously injured in Beijing in 2012.
Before the incident, Ling had served as the chief of the party Central Committee’s General Office and as Hu’s personal secretary.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping launched an anti-corruption campaign that has investigated tens of thousands of suspects, including dozens of high-profile individuals at the top of the Communist Party.
