BEIJING • China will prosecute the former head of its statistics bureau, the country's anti-corruption watchdog said yesterday, accusing him of serious violations of discipline, including extravagance, abuse of power and selling power for sex.

Wang Baoan, former chief of China's National Bureau of Statistics, lacked political faith, frequently stayed at expensive hotels, abused his position to get benefits for relatives, and accepted gifts, property and bribes, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said.

He was deputy finance minister from 2012 until April last year, when he took up the post of statistics bureau chief.

Separately, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported that a Chinese general has been arrested in China for violating party discipline.

Citing two unnamed sources, it said Wang Jianping, 62, deputy chief of the joint staff department under the powerful Central Military Commission, was taken into custody in Chengdu in south-western Sichuan province. His wife and secretary were also detained, the newspaper said.

The People's Liberation Army is already reeling from President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, which has seen dozens of officers investigated, including Xu Caihou, a former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Wang Jianping is known to have worked closely in the past with Xu and former security czar Zhou Yongkang.

REUTERS