China's former domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang has been formally charged with bribery, abuse of power and intentional disclosure of state secrets, setting the stage for the highest-profile trial yet in the country's sweeping anti-corruption campaign.
The once mighty politician is not only the biggest “tiger” – or high-ranking official – to be charged in leader Xi Jinping’s drive, but also the most senior figure in the party’s history to be indicted on corruption charges.
The indictment was filed in the intermediate people’s court in Tianjin, a port city not far from Beijing, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
The report suggested the 72-year-old was unlikely to be shown much leniency. “Zhou’s abuse of power resulted in grave losses of public property and interests of the country and the people. The social impact was bad and his act was particularly serious, according to the indictment,” Xinhua said. “He also intentionally disclosed state secrets.”
Last month the president of China’s top court said Mr Zhou’s trial would be “open in accordance with the law”.
While authorities will want publicity to demonstrate Mr Xi’s determination to tackle corruption, political trials are even more carefully controlled in China than regular criminal cases, and the state security charges ensure that at least part of the hearings will be secret.
That will be particularly attractive to leaders after the disgraced politburo member Bo Xilai used his 2013 trial to defend himself outspokenly.
State secrets
Steve Tsang, an expert on Chinese politics at Nottingham University, said: “It will be an open trial as limited by the crime he is alleged to have committed – and because so much of it is about state secrets that will mean quite a lot is limited.
“I think there will be less information and more careful management than in the Bo Xilai case, when I think they felt slightly burnt. But I would expect him to play ball much more than Bo.” He said Mr Zhou’s age and personality, and the sheer number of people close to him who were held, meant he was unlikely to show open defiance like Bo.
Mr Zhou has not been seen in public since autumn 2013 and his detention, long rumoured, was confirmed last summer. His wife, son and other relatives are believed also to be held, in addition to a large number of former aides and contacts. A New York Times investigation suggested that family members had amassed assets worth 1bn yuan (€150bn).
In December Xinhua announced that Mr Zhou had been expelled from the party and would face charges – despite what was thought to be an understanding that members of the politburo standing committee, the country’s top political body, would not be put on trial.
While Mr Zhou’s case may well prove to be the most high-profile of the anti-corruption campaign, analysts say it is unlikely to be the last major case. There have been increasingly broad hints from Chinese media that Guo Boxiong, former vice-chairman of the central military commission, is in trouble. His son, Guo Zhenggang, a major general in the People’s Liberation Army, is formally under investigation.
Mr Tsang said Mr Zhou had been made vulnerable not just by his ties to Bo but also his lack of allies among his peers. “People didn’t warm to him. He had a strong, powerful network [of people under him], but not the kind of network which reaches horizontally and gives protection. The protection he had was not because he was Zhou Yongkang and had this network, but because he was a PBSC member and others didn’t want one of their own being treated too badly.”