Xu Jianyi, chairman of China FAW Group Corp., is being investigated for corruption, according to a statement issued Sunday by China’s corruption watchdog.
“Xu is suspected of having seriously violated [Party’s] disciplines and the law,” said the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China in a statement posted on its website.
Last week, Xu – a Communist Party member -- was taken away for investigation while attending the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing. Xu is the highest-level auto executive to be targeted by the central government’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign.
The commission has yet to release further details about Xu’s case.
Xu, 62, began his automotive career in 1975, when he joined FAW. He spent his entire career there, aside from a four-year stint with the government of Jilin, where FAW is headquartered. He was named chairman of FAW, China's second-biggest domestic automaker, in 2010.
In 2011, the government started investigating managers dispatched to FAW’s joint ventures with Volkswagen Group and Toyota Motor Corp. after receiving complaints from company insiders about rampant corruption.
Several lower-level FAW managers have been probed for allegedly taking bribes from dealers, advertisers and public relations firms.
To curb corruption within government agencies and state-owned companies, President Xi Jinping has launched a series of investigations over the past year.
To date, dozens of senior government officials and state-owned company executives have been arrested on corruption charges.
Last year, the government also sent an inspection team to Dongfeng Motor Corp. to investigate executives of the state-owned automaker. Three Dongfeng managers --including one who served as vice president of the company’s joint venture with Nissan Motor Co. -- have been investigated for alleged disciplinary violations.
