Heads have continued to roll among senior local Communist Party officials in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai more than a month after a deadly car attack left 35 people dead, although the departures have not been explicitly linked with the incident.
Zhang Qiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Zhuhai Municipal People’s Congress, the city’s legislature, and a former vice-mayor, is the latest to come under investigation or be replaced since the incident.
The provincial anti-corruption watchdog, Guangdong’s commission for discipline inspection, said on Sunday that Zhang, 58, was suspected of “serious disciplinary and law violations”.
Zhang held a number of law enforcement positions in the city over the past decade, including deputy procurator-general, director of the public security bureau and as secretary of the city party’s political and legal affairs committee – the top security role.
According to the official website for Xiangzhou district, where the car attack happened, its party secretary was replaced early last week, a move that followed the departure earlier this month of the district’s mayor.
The same fate has befallen the mayor of Zhuhai, along with a deputy mayor of the city and its police chief.
According to a report last week in the party newspaper Zhuhai Special Zone Daily, the city’s top security official has also been replaced as secretary of the political and legal affairs committee.
