China probes ex-media head

BEIJING: China is investigating the former head of a securities industry newspaper for links to a tycoon who went missing in Hong Kong last month, a local media outlet has reported.

Xie Zhenjiang, former president of the Securities Daily newspaper and chairman of its business arm Securities Daily Media Co., has been expelled from the Communist Party for "serious disciplinary violations", respected financial magazine Caixin reported Saturday, citing anonymous sources.

The term is standard code for graft and the expulsion is the first step in a process that often ends in prosecution.

Caixin has linked the turmoil to the investigation into Xiao Jianhua, a tycoon who disappeared from his apartment at Hong Kong’s luxury Four Seasons hotel.

Some reports say he was abducted by mainland Chinese security agents and brought back to the mainland.

The editorial decisions and business operations of the Securities Daily have been under the control of Xiao’s company, the Beijing-based Tomorrow Group, according to Caixin.

The financier is reportedly under investigation in connection with China’s 2015 stocks crash, when the Shanghai index lost nearly 40 percent of its value over a two-month period.