China's ruling Communist party said today it had placed an assistant chairman of China's top securities regulator under investigation, after months of declines in Chinese stock markets.
Zhang Yujun is being investigated for "serious violations of discipline," the party's internal anti-graft body said on its website. The phrase is generally a euphemism for corruption.
Zhang was an assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), a government body at the centre of China's efforts to stabilise its volatile stock markets.
Authorities have intervened on a broad scale to encourage buying in an attempt to cushion a market rout which began in June and roiled exchanges worldwide.
Zhang had been one of three assistant chairmen at the CSRC since 2012, after managing the Shanghai stock exchange.
Many investors called for the CSRC's chief Xiao Gang to step down over the stock price plunge, and some online commenters expressed renewed doubts.
"When an assistant has issues, then where is the chairman's responsibility?" prominent journalist Luo Changping wrote on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter equivalent.
After conducting internal graft investigations, the Communist party can internally punish alleged offenders, or expel them from the party and pass them onto courts for a trial and sentencing.
