Chinese media links Zhou Yongkang family names to corruption probe
Media outlets ‘draw a line’ between names of former security tsar’s family and investigations into his power network and energy industry
Some mainland media outlets appear to be drawing links between relatives of former public security tsar Zhou Yongkang and the subjects of corruption investigations involving his former powerbases in Sichuan and the state petroleum industry.
The stories, which have appeared in some of the mainland's major business news publications, have detailed a web of lucrative business relationships involving the state oil giant and people believed to be members of Zhou's family.
The reports steered clear of any direct connection between the probes into China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Zhou, who, as a retired member of the Politburo's supreme Standing Committee, is among the Communist Party's most important figures.
Instead, they have mentioned the names without explanation or referred cryptically to business relationships involving CNPC subsidiaries and beneficiaries "surnamed Zhou".
But the mere presence of the stories is being seen as further evidence that anti-graft watchdogs have him in their sights.
The South China Morning Post reported last month that top party leaders decided at their high-level Beidaihe meetings to allow an unprecedented corruption investigation into Zhou.