Chinese ex-oil firm executive arrested for suspected bribery
by AFP Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Jan 8, 2024

A former top executive at a Chinese state-owned oil and gas giant has been arrested for suspected bribery, state media reported on Monday, citing the country's top public prosecutor.

Xu Wenrong, the former deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) was arrested in northeastern China, state broadcaster CCTV said.

"The case is currently under further processing," CCTV reported, without saying when Xu was arrested.

The arrest came after the party's anti-graft agency announced on Saturday that Xu, who was already under investigation, had been kicked out of the ruling Communist Party for "accepting huge sums of money".

CNPC, a vast energy group based in Beijing, ranked fifth on last year's Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations by revenue.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a sweeping campaign against official corruption since coming to power a decade ago.

Proponents say the policy promotes clean governance, while critics argue that it serves as a vehicle for Xi to purge political opponents.

Xu's arrest follows a number of convictions in China's financial sector.

In December, a former senior official at China's central bank, Sun Guofeng, was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for corruption.

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