BEIJING: China expelled a disgraced senior aide to former President Hu Jintao from a high-profile advisory body on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported on its website, marking the latest step in a significant political scandal.

Ling Jihua heads a Communist Party body charged with reaching out to non-Communists and holds a rank equivalent to vice premier. The largely ceremonial advisory council also dismissed former spy boss Ma Jian and Zhu Mingguo, once a senior official in the southern export powerhouse province of Guangdong, according to media reports. Both have been accused of graft.

Ling was demoted in September 2012 after sources said his son was involved in a deadly crash involving an expensive sports car in an embarassment to the party, which is sensitive to public criticism that its officials and their families lead lifestyles of excess.

Ling was dropped from his post as head of the party’s General Office of the Central Committee, a powerful post similar to cabinet secretary in governments modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom, such as Australia and Canada.

He was then appointed as minister for the less influential United Front Work Department, which is in charge of co-opting non-Communists, religious groups and ethnic minorities.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2015

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