Ling Jihua’s brother-in-law sacked as deputy mayor

The brother-in-law of Ling Jihua, disgraced former vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, has reportedly been removed from his position as deputy mayor of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. A Yuncheng People's Congress official told news website thepaper.cn on Tuesday that Wang Jiankang, 60, one of five deputy mayors of Yuncheng, has been removed from his post. The official, however, did not say why Wang was removed. Wang was reportedly first taken into custody as part of a graft investigation in summer last year after it was announced that his other brother-in-law, Ling Zhengce, Ling Jihua's elder brother, was being investigated. After an investigation of Ling Zhengce was announced in June 2014, Wang reportedly disappeared from the public eye from June to August, leading to suspicions that he, too, was under investigation and was linked to the Ling brothers. Ling Jihua was placed under investigation by the Party's anti-graft watchdog on December 22, 2014. He was expelled from the Communist Party of China and removed from public office, reported the Xinhua News Agency in July. Ling was found to have "seriously violated" the Party's disciplines on political and confidentiality grounds, sought benefits for others in his position, received bribes for himself and his relatives, illegally accessed confidential information, sought benefits for his wife's business, committed adultery and used his position to illegally solicit sex and sought illegitimate gains for his relatives and friends by taking advantage of his position.