Ex-boss of China’s state-run bank Everbright arrested on corruption charges | Corruption News

Tang Shuangning is latest in long line of high-profile figures to be ensnared in Xi Jinping’s anticorruption drive.

The former head of China’s state-owned banking giant Everbright Group has been arrested for alleged corruption, prosecutors have said.

Tang Shuangning, 69, was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes and embezzlement following the conclusion of an investigation by the anticorruption authority, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate said on Monday.

Tang was earlier this month expelled from the ruling Communist Party for alleged violations of party discipline, including bringing unauthorised books into the country and accepting illicit gifts.

The former bank chairman is the latest in a long line of high-profile figures within China’s financial sector to be ensnared in President Xi Jinping’s sweeping campaign against corruption.

Last month, Sun Guofeng, the former head of the central bank’s monetary policy department, was sentenced to 16 years and six months in prison for taking bribes, leaking state secrets and insider trading.

In October, Liu Liange, the former chairman of the Bank of China, was arrested on suspicion of bribery and providing illegal loans.

Li Xiaopeng, who took over from Tang at Everbright, was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes the same month.

Xi, widely regarded as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, has made a zero-tolerance attitude toward corruption a signature policy of his precedent-busting tenure in office.

While Xi’s supporters have credited the Chinese leader with cleaning up the country’s politics and business, critics say the anticorruption drive is a thinly veiled ploy to purge rivals.