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Environmental protection chief in coal-rich Chinese province accused of corruption

A former environmental protection official in Shanxi is under investigation for alleged corruption, the latest person to be suspected of wrongdoing amid a sweeping anti-graft crackdown in the coal-rich province in northern China.

Liu Xiangdong, the former head of the Shanxi Environmental Protection Department was suspected of “having seriously violated discipline and law”, the central government’s anti-corruption agency said in a statement, using a form of words it frequently adopts to describe alleged graft.

Liu, 60, was leading an anti-corruption inspection team in the city of Luliang before he was placed under investigation.

The statement did not detail the allegations against Liu, but the news website the Thepaper.cn cited an unnamed source close to the environment agency as saying the investigation was linked to the granting of environmental permits for mining projects and his involvement in a 850 million yuan (HK$1 billion) pollution monitoring project.

Another unnamed source said to be familiar with political affairs in Shanxi told the website that provincial anti-corruption investigators carried out an inspection of the environmental protection department after two high-profile businessmen, Shanxi-based coal-mining tycoon Zhang Xinming and the former chairman of the state-run conglomerate China Resources, Song Lin, were placed under investigation for alleged graft last year.

Shanxi, which is famous for its abundance of coal, has been one of the centres of the central government’s anti-corruption campaign, amid allegations of graft involving officials and mining executives.

Dozens of officials in the province, including Ren Runhou, the late former vice-governor of Shanxi, and Jin Daoming, the ex-vice chief of the Shanxi Provincial People’s Congress, have been detained for alleged graft.

source: http://www.scmp.com