China levels corruption charges against Supreme Court vice president

BEIJING, July 12 (UPI) -- China's anti-corruption authority on Sunday said it was investigating the vice president of the Supreme People's Court.

Xi Xiaoming, 61, is being probed for "serious violations of discipline and laws," China Daily quoted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China as saying in a statement.

Serving in the Supreme People's Court since 1982, Xi was also part of the court's leading Communist Party of China member group. The CCDI did not elaborate on the charges or potential consequences.

China's Communist Party has for years been involved in an anti-corruption campaign that has targeted thousands of government officials.

Last month former security chief Zhou Yongkang was imprisoned for life on corruption charges dating back decades, the BBC reports. He was the highest-ranking former official to be jailed in years.

In January, China stripped Zhang Kunsheng of his position at the Foreign Ministry after the CCDI began investigating him for a "disciplinary violation." State media at the time described him as the highest-ranking diplomat caught in President Xi Jinping's sweeping anti-corruption drive.

By the time President Xi assumed office in 2012, Communist Party of China officials said that in the previous five years it had investigated more than 600,000 officials for corruption spurred by the country's booming economy.