China probes senior power official for graft

BEIJING (Reuters) - A top executive of state-run China Southern Power Grid is under investigation for "serious disciplinary violations", the graft watchdog of Guangdong province said on Monday, as the government presses home its fight against pervasive corruption. Qi Dacai is a vice president and director of the Southern Power Grid, the Guangdong disciplinary authorities said in a short statement on its website gdjct.gd.gov.cn. "Serious disciplinary violations" is the term usually used to refer to corruption in China. Calls to Qi's office in Guangzhou went unanswered. The company's press department was not immediately available for comment. The ruling Communist Party has targeted 26 big state-owned firms for graft inspections this year, including China Southern Power Grid, China Power Investment Corp and State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. The anti-graft efforts at state firms coincides with the expected roll-out of ambitious new guidelines to overhaul China's inefficient state sector. Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to go after powerful "tigers" as well as lowly "flies" in his struggle against corruption, warning, like others before him, that the problem is so bad it could affect the party's grip on power. Several senior former and current officials have been felled, including retired domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, once one of China's most powerful men. (Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Adam Rose; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Jeremy Laurence)