Society

Former Chinese official arrested after eight months on run

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-01-12 21:06

ZHENGZHOU - Police in central China's Henan Province say they have apprehended an official who has been been on the run for eight months after facing allegations of corruption.

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Li Weimin, 54, former vice secretary of the Anyang Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), disappeared in May last year, a spokesman for the Public Security Bureau of Anyang, Henan Province, said Wednesday.

Police apprehended Li on Monday in Sanmenxia, another city in Henan, the spokesman said, but he gave no further details about the detention.

Li's disappearance made headlines in Chinese media last year. He was expelled from the CPC in June for being suspected of having committed a count of crime known as "taking advantage of his position."

Although local authorities have given no details of his crime, media reports have linked him with a string of corruption cases revealed last year in Sanmenxia, where Li worked as a senior CPC and government official from 1998 to 2009.

President Hu Jintao said Monday the CPC and the Chinese government would wage the fight against corruption with greater determination and more forceful measures as the situation remained "grave."

Addressing a plenary session of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Party's anti-graft body, Hu pledged to "combat graft strictly and punish corrupt officials severely" so as to win trust from the people.