SHANGHAI: China has removed a senior official of its much-heralded Shanghai free-trade zone (FTZ) less than a year after it was opened, state media said on Monday, amid reports he was under investigation for corruption.

The official Xinhua news agency said Dai Haibo was no longer the Communist Party chief and executive deputy director of the zone, which was set up on September 29 last year. It gave no reason.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post on Monday quoted anonymous sources as saying he was suspected of “disciplinary violations”, a phrase which typically refers to corruption.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014