Beijing has announced that Wang Yilin, the former chairman of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), one of China’s largest oil companies, is under investigation for “serious violations” of the law. Wang served as the chairman of CNPC from 2015 to 2018, and the investigation marks the latest development in China’s ongoing anti-graft crackdown.
The Communist Party’s anti-graft agency issued a statement stating that Wang is suspected of “serious violations of discipline and the law,” a phrase often associated with allegations of corruption. Wang is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation as part of the probe.
This inquiry follows the recent arrest of another CNPC executive, former deputy general manager Xu Wenrong, who was apprehended on charges of suspected bribery. Xu was also expelled from the Communist Party for “accepting huge sums of money,” as stated by the anti-graft agency.
CNPC, ranked fifth on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest corporations by revenue, has seen two of its high-ranking executives implicated in corruption-related investigations in a short span.
China, under President Xi Jinping, has been engaged in a comprehensive campaign against corruption, with recent focus extending to top financiers and businessmen. While proponents argue that these efforts aim at promoting clean governance, critics assert that the campaign is also utilized to eliminate political rivals.
