Manager of China aircraft carrier builder under graft probe

BEIJING: China has launched a corruption investigation into the general manager of the state-owned firm responsible for building aircraft carriers, a potential complication in ambitious plans to modernise its navy.

Sun Bo is being probed for “suspicion of serious breach of the party discipline and the law”, Communist Party watchdog the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a brief online statement late Saturday. Sun, 57, is second-in-command of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. The country’s first domestically built aircraft carrier started sea trials last month. The carrier, known only as “Type 001A”, is expected to be commissioned by 2020, giving China a second aircraft carrier as it asserts its extensive claims in the South China Sea and seeks to deter any independence movements in Taiwan.