BEIJING, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- China's new leadership, fighting corruption, fired a senior security official for "suspected serious law and discipline violations," official media said.
Li Dongsheng was removed from his powerful posts of vice minister for public security as well as deputy director of the government's group in charge of preventing and handling cults, the Global Times reported.
Li was being investigated by China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, but the agency provided no details. Discipline violation charges usually refer to corruption accusations.
Li is the second member of the central committee of the Communist party to be investigated by the commission since the country's new leadership led by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang came to power after the party congress in November of 2012. The new leadership has vowed to crack down on rampant official corruption which has become a major threat to the country.
Prior to Li, Jiang Jiemin, former head of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, was ousted in September.
Li previously worked for decades in the publicity field and served as the vice director of China Central Television and deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Global Times said.
In its anti-corruption five-year plan lasting through 2017, the party central committee has said: "If the problems of work styles and corruption are not handled properly, they will critically harm the party, and even lead the party or nation to perish."
