BEIJING, Oct 17 — The mayor of the Chinese city of Nanjing is being investigated for serious breaches of the law, China’s Supervision Ministry said today, the latest high-profile detention in a nationwide crackdown on graft.

The ministry did not give details in a short statement. An earlier report in the online version of the official People’s Daily newspaper said the mayor, Ji Jianye, was under investigation over “economic problems”, a euphemism for corruption.

Since taking office in March, President Xi Jinping has called corruption a threat to the ruling Communist Party’s survival and vowed to go after powerful “tigers” as well as lowly “flies”.

The People’s Daily online report said Ji’s case may have involved some 20 million yuan (RM10.5 million), citing other local media reports.

Nanjing is the capital of eastern Jiangsu province, one of China’s main industrial centres but also its most indebted province.

The nationwide graft crackdown has so far netted a handful of senior officials, among them former executives from oil giant PetroChina.

The government has also launched an unspecified investigation into PetroChina’s former head of Indonesia operations, Chinese oil industry sources familiar with the matter told Reuters this week. — AFP