Brother-in-law's public appearance provides twist to Ling Jihua investigation

The brother-in-law of Ling Jihua, once a senior aide to former president Hu Jintao, showed up at a meeting in Yuncheng, Shanxi, providing an interesting twist to the possibility that Ling is under investigation for corruption.

Wang Jiankang, a deputy mayor of Yuncheng, re-emerged in public at a meeting chaired by the mayor on Monday and gave a briefing on the development of the city's agricultural sector, reported on Tuesday.

Some reports had previously suggested that Wang had been in custody since late June in connection with the investigation related to Ling, either to help with the inquiry, or to be directly implicated in it.

His appearance at the city meeting might mean he was assisting the investigation without being implicated, observers said.

"We still need to see how it will unfold. It seems nothing is certain at the moment. This is a strange period," said Beijing-based political commentator Zhang Lifan.

Ling was seen as a rising star and was expected to win promotion to the Communist Party Politburo because of his close relationship to Hu, but his career suffered a setback after allegations that he tried to cover up details of his son's death in March 2012. His son, Ling Gu, died when a Ferrari he was driving crashed in Beijing.