On Monday, China's Politburo permitted Ling Jihua's arrest due to corruption charges. Ling has been under investigation since December. The investigation exposed that Ling accepted large sums of money through bribery. He was also accused of stealing state secrets and having mistresses, which is against the rules of the party. His family also benefited because of Ling's position in the party. The state media announced that due to the accusations, Ling's membership from the party has been revoked and he cannot be seated in any government position, Japan Times reported.
The series of investigations that target China's former high-ranking officials was started by the current president, Xi Jinping so he can reestablish the public's trust in the government and assert his position as the new party leader. He initiated the investigations after being seated in 2012 to completely eliminate corruption from the country.
Xi wanted to overhaul the mistakes that were overlooked by the previous head of the party, Hu Jintao, by arresting corrupt low-ranking officials to even high-ranking ones. Other officials such as China's former security czar and the military's second-highest ranking official have already been arrested. Ling was the Central Committee's General Office head from the previous term, a highly influential position, starting from 2007 to 2012. Ling was known to be one of the ex-president's advisers and went with him on trips both domestic and abroad, according to CNN.
Ling's political position and wealth were compromised in March 2012 when his only son crashed a Ferrari 458 Spider in Beijing. In spite of the mass media blackout that was implemented to cover the incident, several reports said that the son was in the company of two women; one was totally naked while the other one was partially dressed, BBC reported.
