Corruption | Anti-graft agency targets deputy Beijing party boss

A Communist Party official in Beijing and a deputy mayor of Shanghai have joined the rapidly growing list of prominent political figures ensnared in an anti-corruption crackdown.
The ruling party’s anti-graft agency said yesterday it is investigating Lu Xiwen, deputy secretary of the capital’s party committee. It said she is suspected of “severe disciplinary violations” — the party’s term for corruption.
That followed the agency’s announcement Tuesday that Ai Baojun, a deputy Shanghai mayor, faced a similar investigation.
Thousands of officials have been investigated during the 3-year-old campaign led by President Xi Jinping. More than 100 senior officials and military officers have been charged with crimes or placed under criminal investigation, with no sign of the campaign abating.
Lu, 60, served in party posts in Beijing in charge of economic and industrial issues. She also is president of the Beijing party branch’s political training school for party officials.
Ai, 55, is a former chairman of Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd., the publicly traded unit of state-owned Baosteel Group Corp.
Ai was appointed a deputy Shanghai mayor in 2007. In 2013, he became director of the city’s new free-trade trade zone, which has been heavily promoted by the central government. AP