China rail minister removed in corruption probe

China rail minister removed in corruption probe    China's Minister of Railways has been ousted in an investigation into government corruption, according to international media reports.
   Liu Zhijun has been suspended and put under investigation for 'severe disciplinary violations' stemming from a corruption scandal dating back to 2006.
   Liu ouster was originally reported by Chinese state-owned news agency Xinhua.
   'Although there was no announcement about whether Mr. Liu was still a minister, the public disclosure of such investigations is often the precursor for formal criminal charges,' the Financial Times reported Sunday. 'On the ministry's Web site, the page outlining its leadership structure was taken down over the weekend. This is not the first time that Mr. Liu's family has been involved in corruption probes. In 2006, his younger brother, Liu Zhixiang, who was then a senior railways official in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, received a suspended death sentence after being convicted of trying to hire an assassin to kill a man who had informed on him. He was also accused of embezzling $5 million.'
   Liu, who has been railways minister since 2003, has overseen a massive expansion of the country's rail network for both passenger and cargo traffic. His eight-year tenure was described in the Financial Times piece as an 'unusually long' tenure. He is also a member of China's influential Central Committee, and the report noted that corruption investigations into such high-ranking officials in China often are blamed by analysts on political agendas. China's Communist Party government has been on a spree to eradicate the perception of corruption within its ranks.