Provincial leader investigated for graft

Anti-corruption authorities launched a new investigation into graft involving a senior provincial official on Thursday night.

Mao Xiaobing, Party chief in Xining, capital of Qinghai province, is being probed for serious violations of discipline and law, according to an announcement posted at about 11 pm on Thursday on the website of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party's top anti-graft agency.

Mao, 49, a member of the standing committee of the provincial CPC committee, is the eighth and youngest ministerial-level official to be investigated for graft since the beginning of the year, and the 25th in a sweeping anti-corruption campaign that began soon after the Party's new leadership took office in 2012.