'Tiger' hunt shows Party is resolved to clean house

Barely two days after the Communist Party of China's top disciplinary body announced the investigation of Lu Wei, former deputy chief of the Party's Publicity Department, Zhang Yang, a former member of the Central Military Commission, who was also under investigation, committed suicide on Thursday.

Lu, the first high-level official, or "tiger", brought down by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection after the Party's 19th National Congress, is under investigation for what are described as serious violations of disciplinary protocols.

Zhang was being investigated for his connections with the disgraced former CMC vice-chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, as well as offering and accepting bribes and holding a huge amount of assets whose origin was unclear, in addition to other discipline violations.