China prosecutors investigate former investment boss for graft

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese prosecutors are investigating the former chairman of a top investment body in the southwestern province of Sichuan for corruption, state media reported on Tuesday, as the world's second-largest economy deepens its probe into deep-seated graft. Huang Shunfu, once the chairman of Sichuan Provincial Investment Group Co. Ltd., a state-owned investment firm under Sichuan's provincial government, is suspected of taking bribes, the official Xinhua news agency said via its microblog, citing judicial authorities in the province. Sichuan Provincial Investment Group is a key player in financing construction projects in the province, and has also been involved with energy firms. Sichuan was once a stronghold of disgraced security boss Zhou Yongkang, who was felled last year amid a sweeping anti-graft campaign by President Xi Jinping. Zhou, 72, is the most senior Chinese official to be ensnared in a graft scandal since the party swept to power in 1949. The crackdown has taken down at least a dozen former associates and proteges of Zhou, once a member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee. The campaign has also ensnared Jiang Jiemin, the former top regulator of state-owned enterprises and a close political ally of Zhou. Huang previously resigned as a delegate to the National People's Congress, the country's largely rubber-stamp legislature. (Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Nick Macfie)