A senior sports official has become the subject of a corruption inquiry, according to the Communist party’s graft watchdog.This is the first senior official to fall under official scrutiny since the sports administration was censured last year.On June 25, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, or the CCDI, announced that the deputy director of and the third-ranking official at the General Administration of Sport, Xiao Tian, had been arrested the same day and was being investigated for “serious violations of discipline and law,” a term commonly used by the CCDI to mean corruption.His arrest follows months of speculation on investigations over the administration which began when the CCDI hit out with public criticism in November 2014 on managerial “irregularities.”Following the announcements, the administration admitted in January 2015 that officials and referees alike had taken bribes to fix events during the 12th National Games held in the fall of 2013.Senior officials from the administration’s soccer unit, as well as many well-known referees, have also been jailed recently for fixing games.Prior to Xiao’s detention, the latest arrest occurred in April of 2015, when Shen Lihong, the vice director for the Cycling and Fencing Sports Administration, as well as the vice president of the China Equestrian Association, was taken in by the CCDI for suspected bribery and corruption charges.
