China probes head of Shanghai airports operator for corruption

President Xi Jinping is pressing ahead with his signature anti-graft campaign, which has netted more than 1.5 million officials nationwide. PHOTO: REUTERS

SHANGHAI (BLOOMBERG) - The Chinese Communist Party is probing the chairman of the Shanghai Airport Authority for alleged corruption as President Xi Jinping continues his more than five-year-old crackdown on graft.

Mr Wu Jianrong, 56, has come under under suspicion of violating party rules and state laws, according to a statement posted on the website of the party's disciplinary watchdog in Shanghai on Monday night (Aug 6) that offered no other details.

A spokesman for the Shanghai Airport Authority declined to comment on Tuesday afternoon.

The inquiry into Mr Wu follows the charging of former top Internet regulator Lu Wei with corruption last month.

Mr Xi is pressing ahead with his signature anti-graft campaign, which has netted more than 1.5 million officials nationwide.

Aviation is among the sectors that investigators have targeted, with a court in April 2017 sentencing a former China Southern Airlines executive to prison for taking bribes.

The Shanghai Airport Authority is the state-owned parent of Shanghai Hongqiao and Pudong International Airport. The two facilities serving China's financial capital handled a combined more than 100 million passengers last year.

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