VP of China Mobile detained for corruption

(Ecns.cn)--Lu Xiangdong, vice president of China Mobile, has been detained by the Jilin Provincial Procuratorate on suspicions of corruption, said Caixin Media on Thursday, citing unnamed insiders.

Lu was inaugurated as vice president of China Mobile, one of the country's biggest state-owned telecom companies and the world's largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers, in April 2000.

Lu's case was handed to the Jilin Provincial Procuratorate by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, according to Caixin, which indicates that the government may already have strong evidence of criminal activity.

According to China News Service, China Mobile said they had no idea about Lu being taken away and that the company is still working to find out more.

Lu is not the first person at the telecom giant to be investigated for corruption. In July 2011, Zhang Chunjiang, former deputy general manager of China Mobile, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve after he was caught taking bribes.

The Intermediate People's Court of Cangzhou also ordered the confiscation of Zhang's personal assets and stripped him of his political rights.

The court found that Zhang, 53, took 7.46 million yuan (US$1.15 million) in bribes between 1994 and 2009, when he was deputy director of the Liaoning Provincial Postal Administration, general manager of China Netcom Group Corporation Ltd, and deputy general manager of China Mobile.

According to the Beijing Times, Caixin's report of Lu's case was online for a few hours on Thursday, but the link could not be accessed later that day.