Former rail minister accused of disciplinary violations

Former railway minister Sheng Guangzu has been accused of serious disciplinary violations and is cooperating with a probe by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, the disciplinary watchdogs said on Friday.

Sheng, 72, native of Jiangsu province, served as railway minister from February 2011 to March 2013.

The ministry was dismantled into administrative and commercial arms in 2013. The Ministry of Transport has absorbed its administrative powers and the new China Railway Corp－now known as China State Railway Group－has taken charge of its commercial side.

Sheng was also the first head of China Railway Corp from March 2013 to October 2016 before becoming deputy head of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress in November 2016.

Sheng began his career in the railway sector and served as head of several railway bureaus in eastern China, including Nanjing in Jiangsu province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, and Jinan in Shandong province.

Sheng's predecessor, former railway minister Liu Zhijun, who held the post from 2003 to 2011, was sentenced to a suspended death penalty in 2013 for bribery and abuse of power.