Head of national winter sports body under probe

Ni Huizhong, Party chief and director of the National Winter Sports Administrative Center of the General Administration of Sport, is under investigation on suspicion of seriously violating Party disciplines and laws.

The announcement was made on Saturday by the disciplinary inspection and supervision team from the General Administration of Sport of China, which was sent by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision.

Ni, 54, was made the Party chief and head of the center in 2017. He was also the secretary-general of China's delegation of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

China's top anti-graft watchdog announced in April that a disciplinary inspection and supervision team was dispatched to the General Administration of Sport.

The team said it will focus on outstanding problems of those senior officials reported by the public and will dig deeper to eradicate corruption in the field of sports and carry out deep-seated institutional reforms to provide a strong guarantee for the construction of a strong sports nation.

China has been determined to pursue a crackdown on graft in the sport sector. Prior to the arrival of the team, at least nine soccer-related officials have been put under investigation, including Du Zhaocai, vice-head of the General Administration of Sport.