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Party official's escape confirmed
Updated: 2010-08-30 14:45
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A senior Party official from Anyang city in Central China's Henan province is suspected of having gone abroad to escape his corruption investigation.
Authoritative sources from Henan province said that Li Weimin, deputy Party chief of Anyang, has fled.
A report on the official website of Anyang city government, www.aynews.net.cn, said that Li, 53, was suspected of committing duty offences. He has been expelled from the Party and dismissed from his position.
The local procuratorial department has started an investigation into Li's case, the report said.
The report, however, did not reveal where Li, who has been missing for more than three months, is now residing.
A report by China News Service said Li vanished from a hotel in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei province, on his way back to Anyang from a trip to Beijing in May.
He was in Beijing to attend the funeral of Fang Xiaoyu, former executive deputy governor of Hainan province, on May 19. Fang worked in Anyang from 1993 to 2003 and was Anyang's Party chief for two years.
On the way back, Li and his driver checked into a hotel in Shijiazhuang, but Li left his hotel room without informing his driver.
Sources close to the case said Li might have been involved in a series of corruption cases in Sanmenxia, another city in Henan province, in previous years.
Before being promoted to deputy Party chief of Anyang in August 2009, Li had been vice-mayor of Sanmenxia from December 1998 to 2001. He became head of the organization department of Sanmenxia city's Party committee in 2001.
A number of corruption cases were investigated and exposed in Sanmenxia in 2009.
Tong Mengjiao, Party chief of Mianchi county, has been put under shuanggui - a form of detention in which officials are asked to confess wrongdoings, such as accepting bribes.
Shan Xiangdong, former director of Sanmenxia's city bureau of communications, was sentenced to 13 years in jail for accepting bribes valued at 2.22 million yuan ($326,500).
Huang Guohua, former director of Sanmenxia's housing administration, has been dismissed from his post as investigations pointed to him taking bribes worth 848,000 yuan.
（中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 Helen 編輯）
Todd Balazovic is a reporter for the Metro Section of China Daily. Born in Mineapolis Minnesota in the US, he graduated from Central Michigan University and has worked for the China daily for one year.