The former all-powerful head of China’s secret police, Zhou Yongkang, has been formally charged with “bribery, abuse of power and intentional disclosure of state secrets”, paving the way for what promises to be one of the most electrifying trials in modern Chinese history.
The official Xinhua News Agency on Friday morning said that the indictment, which repeated charges outlined by Chinese Communist party investigators in December, had been filed by prosecutors in the Tianjin Intermediate People’s Court.
Mr Zhou, a former member of the party’s Politburo Standing Committee, is the biggest “tiger” of President Xi’ Jingping’s unprecedent two-year anti-corruption campaign.