China has placed two high-ranking officials under investigation in moves that appear to close the net more tightly around the country’s powerful former security chief.
The detentions are the latest in a series that have targeted former colleagues of Zhou Yongkang, who ran China’s domestic security apparatus until 2012. The Communist party is widely believed to have already placed Mr Zhou under virtual house arrest but it has yet to announce any legal action against him.
As a member of the nine-person politburo standing committee that ruled China, Mr Zhou, 71, is the most senior politician to be caught up in a corruption investigation in decades.