China places former Sinopec and CNOOC boss Fu Chengyu, 75, under corruption probe

Fu Chengyu, the former chairman of leading oil giants Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), is under investigation for corruption by the country’s top watchdogs.

The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) was investigating Fu for alleged “serious violations of discipline and law”, a euphemism for corruption, state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday, quoting a notice posted on the commission’s website.

He is “currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation” by the CCDI and National Supervisory Commission, according to the website.

The announcement comes just days after the party’s 20th Central Committee wrapped up its fifth plenum with a focus on discipline and anti-corruption efforts.

It also comes more than a decade after Fu retired as chairman of Sinopec Group, now the world’s largest refiner.

He is the latest high-profile figure to be targeted long after leaving office. Earlier this month, Beijing announced that Huang Qifan, the former mayor of Chongqing who stepped down in 2016, had been placed under investigation for corruption.

Fu, now 75, spent more than three decades in China’s oil industry, joining CNOOC when it was founded in 1982. He was in charge of joint ventures with major foreign petroleum companies.

He oversaw the state-owned energy conglomerate’s operations in the South China Sea in the 1990s and became its chairman and CEO in 2003.

In 2011, he was appointed as the chairman and the party chief of Sinopec. After his retirement in 2015, Fu served as a member of the standing committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Beijing’s top advisory body.